A photo for the La Ronge Vigil. Photo courtesy Facebook
While political leaders are talking about the death of a sixth girl in northern Saskatchewan within less than a month, there’s a more immediate grief being felt in La Ronge.
A 13-year-old girl who was a member of Lac La Ronge Indian Band died on the weekend.
A candlelight vigil is being planned by the NORTEP/NORPAC Student Association for Tuesday evening, as a show of community togetherness and support for those who have lost young girls in recent weeks.
Faculty member April Chiefcalf said she is proud of people like Student Association President Amie Bell for stepping up.
“I think that our whole community is suffering right now and it’s really going to be about the community coming together and helping each other. We have kids that are hurting, we have parents that are grieving, families that are grieving. And I just think this is one of many ways that we can come together as a community,” she said.
Chiefcalf said the news of another death felt like a gut punch that made her cry inconsolably.
Amidst that pain, people are showing their strength.
Sarah Poole has been a teacher for over 10 years in the area but is currently on sick leave.
She posted an emotional video on Facebook on Monday with a message “from Miss Poole” to her students, who she is worried about. So far it has more than 2,000 views.
“I am an adult who doesn’t know how to talk to you about what is going on in our school,” she started off.
Poole recalled happy moments shared with former students: graduations, baby showers, weddings.
“I have even gone and worn a red dress and lipstick and looked mighty fierce dancing at a student’s wedding last year. And I much prefer the red dress to the black ones that I’ve worn to kids’ funerals,” she said, pausing to wipe away tears.
Poole said 14 people she had taught at one point in her career have committed suicide.
“Sometimes teachers try and be really tough in front of you and we don’t cry, and maybe we are doing you a disservice, because we do cry.”
Poole had taught and was neighbours with a La Ronge girl who died earlier in the month, 14-year-old Jadene Ana Irving.
“Suicide, it’s not natural, and it scars the heart of everyone it leaves behind because everybody left behind thinks ‘maybe I could have done something or said something,’” Poole said in the video.
She urged her students – current or former – to seek mental health services if they need it, adding that she is doing the same.