Nanaimo/Ladysmith Public School District is making arrangements for their students to come back home early.
That’s after a truck barrelled through a crowd in Nice, France, killing 84 people.
An Islamic State run media outlet says the man who drove his truck into the crowd was a soldier of ISIL.
The 85 students and their chaperones were very near, or witnessed the attack at the Bastille Day festivities.
The district has been in contact with the Canadian Consulate and the Nice foreign crisis centre, whose counsellor spoke directly with the students and staff in France immediately following the event.
The School District says the decision to have the students return home early after consulting with the District’s Violence Threat Risk Assessment team in consultation with the Ministry of Education, The Canadian Centre for Threat Assessment (CCTATR) and Trauma Response, and Safer Schools Together.
The Ministry of Education, through CCTATR, has provided a Canadian school psychologist and trauma response expert who is on route and will spend the next few days with the students and chaperones.
Superintendent John Blain says, “After speaking with the Ministry, Kevin Cameron and Theresa Campbell with Safer Schools Together, the district made the difficult decision to bring our kids, staff and their families home. They have witnessed a horrific event and will need ongoing support from the district. We are prepared to offer our counsellors to all students and staff for as long as they need.”
