Coroner Investigating Young Student's Death

Monday, December 06, 2010 12:03 PM

Prince George, B.C. - Prince George RCMP confirm the B.C. Coroner's Service is investigating the sudden death of a Foothills Elementary school student on Friday...

The grade seven boy had apparently been playing ball in a field and did not get up after diving to catch the ball. He was transported to UHNBC, where he passed away.

RCMP Media Relations Officer, Corporal Craig Douglass, says the coroner's service is called in to investigate any death that occurs outside of medical care. Corporal Douglass says, in this case, as with most others, RCMP officers are assisting with the investigation. "Right now, they're just talking to witnesses, which is standard in these situations."

Douglass is not sure how long the investigation will take, "No, there's no way we can say that in any case, the coroner determines that. It's highly, highly unlikely that foul play is expected here -- it's just tragic more than likely -- but that determination won't be made until after the autopsy is done."

Meantime, assisting the young boy's family, students, and staff remains priority one for School District 57. Superintendent Brian Pepper, "Anything else that goes on will be connected to agencies outside of the school district, if warranted and so we're not involved in that."

Pepper says, "Our main concern with the school district, is the immediate family and I have been talking with them. And then, of course, the involvement related to our CERT team is around the students and parents and providing support to them and then our worry about our own staff -- the staff at the school and making sure we have support for them. So, at this point, that's the focus of our work, that's the focus of our Critical Events Response Team."

As to whether there is a liability concern, Pepper says, "Oh no, all we're interested in right now is the care and the help that we can provide for the family and the students and the staff. We have no interest beyond that, at this point."

The District 57 Superintendent says tragedies of this nature don't remain localized and all school principals and key district staff were made aware over the weekend to prepare for the ripple effect of shock and grief.

"Any time that we lose a youth, whether they're at school or somewhere else, it's a horrible thing."

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