“It is certainly not forgotten”: the board of directors wants good to get out of the school tragedy

The School Council of Ontario who launched a review after the death of one of his students last year says that he wants that a little good will come out of the trial, even if some details, including the cause of the boy’s death, remain unclear all these months later.

“There are still some gaps for us to have a complete picture of what happened that day,” says the highest official of the Council.

Landyn Ferris, a grade 10 student At the Trenton High School in the central, he died in May 2024 – immediately after his sixteenth birthday and in circumstances that remain unclear.

Ferris’s family said he was left alone in a private room in his school, despite the fact that the staff knew that he had a condition that meant that he needed careful observation.

Between the threat of the family of a cause – which remains unrealized – The Hastings and the Prince Edward District School Board (Hpedsb) said little about death.

But almost 11 months later, the Council is giving his most extensive comments to update his trustees on a revision under the school protocols that began after Ferris’ death, even if the briefing does not deepen death itself.

“We looked towards the inside and faced the information we had to honor Landyn, but also to honor our staff who are looking for ways to make a difference,” said Katherine Maciver, director of education of the Board of Directors, in an interview.

“Having something positive comes out of something incredibly tragic.”

Guarantee “optimal” resources of staff

On Monday, Maciver and another Council official, Ken Dostaler, have faced the publicly elected trustees of the Board of Directors on the revision, focused on internal processes relating to students with special education and medical needs.

Ferris was in Trenton High’s life skills program for students with complex needs. According to Josh Nisker, the lawyer who represents Ferris’s family, Ferris had Dravet syndrome, a rare type of genetic epilepsy that can cause convulsions.

Before Ferris died, his mother had warned the school that could not be left alone, said Nisker, especially while sleeping, since that was a trigger for his convulsions.

The family said that Ferris was left alone in a sensory room – a space to help calm or involve students in learning – just to be found cold and not responding some time after when the staff went to put him on a school bus.

“The aim of the revision was to guarantee that the staff had access to resources, training and optimal procedures,” wrote Dostaler A summary report to the trustees before the meeting of the council on Monday.

Some of the expected improvements outlined in the touch of Dostaler’s update on the problems that were relevant to Ferris’ death, others not, Maciver said to CBC.

“I would say that most of them are only a review of the things we do regularly, but we are strengthening those processes and making sure there is a close onboarding for the new staff”, Dostaler told the trustees on Monday.

Among other things, the list of objectives in the update includes:

• Support and training for assistants for the education of the offer.
• More compulsory training for all staff, both permanent and temporary, who are responsible for the safety and well -being of students with complex needs.
• Ensure that emergency supply candidates are quite prepared for their roles and that schools dedicate time to them to review individual education plans and “medical and safety and emergency medical plans”.
• Make sure that all the staff who work directly with the students who have medical needs are provided information on the student’s conditions.

The update also mentions the responsibility of parents to provide schools with updated information on the serious medical situation of the child “as a condition for attending a school”, as well as information on drugs and possible side effects.

The Council will also examine its sensory rooms and the way they are used.

‘He was very loved’

When asked about what happened that day, Maciver mentioned for the first time how the loss had a significant impact on the staff.

“What I could say is that this is probably the worst thing ever in the life of this family and friends and of this staff of the school. Landyn’s loss is deeply felt throughout the system, (even if) close to what the family is going through …” Maciver said.

“He was very loved … and he’s certainly not forgotten.”

Maciver continued by saying that the advice focused on his revision on the areas he could face according to the information he had. This does not include the cause of Ferris’ death.

“We don’t have this information,” he said. A spokesman for the head of the Coroner Coroner said that families get copies of the coroner’s relationships, but not of the school councils.

Maciver said he couldn’t discuss the day when Ferris was found due to the confidentiality of students and the family.

When asked if a school staff were governed or fired following what happened, he said: “We had no indication that this was necessary on the basis of our investigations or police investigations”.

Nisker refused to comment for this story, but confirmed that Ferris’s family has yet “not yet presented any legal action.

He did not answer when he was asked if the family knows the cause of Ferris’ death.

Lawyer requires Coroner’s investigation

The photos show that Ferris had a bright smile and wore superhero themed shirts. He had attended the Trenton High School from Grado 6, Nisker previously said to CBC.

“He kept me softly even when I was angry with the world,” said his mother, Brenda Davis, in a statement to the CBC in the first days of her pain.

Ferris’s death made provincial news and aroused debate in the legislature of Ontario. At the time the Minister of Education, Stephen Lecce, He asked critics to allow “an independent and full investigation“Indicating the parallel investigations of the Coroner office and the OPP. The police forces were not involved for a long time because there was no indication of a foul.

For David Lepofsky, the president of accessibility for the ontarians with disabilities Act Alliance, Ferris’ death “still shouts for a public responsibility” as an investigation by a coroner. (The coroner service says that families in these circumstances can request an investigation, but are not mandatory.)

“There are no indications on which protocols they had and what, if nothing else, went wrong,” said Lepofsky of the advice of the Council.

The advice took some questions from the trustees on Monday, even if one, Ernie Parsons, said that it may not be wise to talk about Ferris’ death, citing the “strong possibility” of a cause.

“The identification of improvements is also interpreted as an identification of deficiencies in the past,” he said.

Maciver said he did not see a problem with “identify the fact that we can all improve in what we do” on a continuous basis and has concluded his observations to the trustees with an invitation to action.

“I would ask you to consider us responsible. Ask for some of these objectives that the team has set … because I think we should report on how we are improving daily, month by month, year by year.”

The Prime Minister Kari Kramp told CBC via and -mail that the trustees have “full confidence” in the Maciver and in the staff “while adopting weighted and informed passages” and that the trustees take their responsibility to supervise the improvements of the system “”.