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Students, families, and teachers are still shaken up after a 15-year-old girl was set on fire at Evan Hardy Collegiate in Saskatoon.
Saskatchewan Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill told reporters his thoughts when he first found out about the attack on Thursday.
“A horrible incident, right? Nobody goes to school expecting that to happen, but (I’m) certainly relieved that nobody was hurt worse than they were,” he said.
Cockrill suggested the silver lining was the quick response from the teacher who helped put out the fire and from the Saskatoon police school resource officer on site.
“As unfortunate as the situation is – and I know we have people recovering from injuries – I can’t help but think it could have been worse, so I am glad it wasn’t,” Cockrill said.
650 CKOM learned on Friday that the 14-year-old student who allegedly perpetrated the attack had a prior history of violent behaviour and was considered a risk to herself and others. She’s now facing charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault and arson, but cannot be named publicly because she is a minor.
Cockrill said he wasn’t aware of the risk assessment.
“That would be something that the local school division would know and be aware of and hopefully take steps to mitigate,” he said.
Going forward, Cockrill said he expects conversations with Saskatoon Public Schools and other divisions across the province will occur in order to improve safety for both kids and teachers in schools.
“At the end of the day, when our kids go to school, when our staff go to school, we expect that to be a safe place, right? And I think teachers deserve a safe workplace, and students deserve a safe place to go to school,” Cockrill said.
He said adding more school resource officers is also a possibility.
“The issues around classroom safety are issues that I personally take very seriously,” the minister said. “We’ve had several incidents around the province that do provide great concern for me.”
Cockrill noted that the ministry will not be in charge of investigating the incident, telling reporters that he is leaving it to the Saskatoon Police Service and Saskatoon Public Schools.
A GoFundMe page raising money for the girl who was injured reached more than $60,000 on Monday afternoon. The funds are meant to help support the victim’s parents as they travel between Saskatoon to Edmonton, where she is in hospital.
Another GoFundMe has been set up for teacher Sean Hayes, who sustained injuries while he tried to help the victim. That fundraiser had reached more than $22,000 by Monday afternoon.
