Tuesday night's school board meeting came to a difficult pause as Donna Kriger reflected on the recent, tragic loss of three young men.
"This has been an absolutely difficult month in the history of the school district," began the School District 83 Superintendent.
"I know as a teacher, those of us in the audience that are teachers, we spend our careers hoping that in some way we鈥檙e able to sew really good things into the lives of the kids we teach. But what isn鈥檛 spoken about quite as often are those things that our students actually sew back into our lives."
She spoke about the teenage men, Olly Willmot who died after falling through the ice on Shuswap Lake on Feb. 8, and Carter Kosik and Carter Lawrence, who died as a result of a two-vehicle collision on Highway 1 on Feb. 15, Kriger said she did not know them personally but shared what others had shared with her about them, pausing as needed.
"What I do know is that it has been spoken to me a number of times that these were three young men who are known to be kind, caring, thoughtful, they are friends, they鈥檙e brothers, they鈥檙e sons and their loss has absolutely shaken this community," said Kriger.
To the families of the three men, Kriger extended the school district's heartfelt condolences.
"Too soon, but never forgotten," said Kriger
Chair Corryn Grayston then spoke on behalf of the board, giving their "sincere and profound condolences to the families of those three individuals, and to the teachers and the principals and vice principals, staff, family, students, friends, etc., we are so very heartbroken to have learned this news that we have."
Kriger then offered words to the families of the two other teenage men who were involved in the Highway 1 crash.
"I just want to recognize this evening that we also have two young men still healing from injuries and our hearts go out to their families as well," said Kriger. "They continue to be in our thoughts and we wish them a full recovery."
