Community in shock in Canada following school shooting, says Pastor
Vivienne Clarke
The pastor of the Tumbler Ridge Fellowship Baptist church, George Rowe, has told of his horror and devastation on learning of the shooting at a school in his community.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Today show, Pastor Rowe explained how he had been out walking when he received the police active alert about the incident.
His daughter, who lives 15 hours away, also called him to let him know that there was a possible shooting, but by that stage, he was at home “secure and safe” with his wife.
Pastor Rowe said he and his wife had lived in Tumbler Ridge for 35 years, and to hear something like that was almost inconceivable.
"And I guess the question was like, how many are involved?
"How many kids? How many teachers, are there parents, who did the act of violence? And all these questions were going through my mind.
“We were all under lockdown, and normally in emergencies, I would be on site, I would be there to help and to advise, and just to share, but because it was that kind of a lockdown, I didn't go outside. And so a lot of these questions kept rising in my own mind.”
The school at the centre of the incident was where his own children were educated and where he taught himself for eight years, he added.
“So I'm at home imagining the layout of the school where the shootings may have taken place, etc. So it was just an agonising couple of hours, and when the advisory was lifted. I went down to the recreation centre to meet with some of the families”
The situation when he arrived was difficult to describe, he said. “The trauma was intensified when the parents are sitting around, standing, hugging each other, not knowing the state of their child, following proper procedure and protocol.
"Investigating teams, of course, could not legitimately give out the names of people until everything had been verified, and I could understand that, but you had to try and bring comfort to the parents and friends that we have to adhere to protocol and but still it was very difficult.”
Pastor Rowe said the situation was beyond comprehension. “Like we're in a village. I call it a village of 2500 people, a beautiful, beautiful town. And why this happens?
"I'm sure we'll get some answers, but the town is having a very difficult time to comprehend the whys of this tragedy, so we will wait and see, and in the meantime, we'll stay together, support each other, be there, and the support from across the country is absolutely phenomenal, and that does help for sure.”
The focus now was on supporting the families of the deceased, he said. “How we can bring some kind of relief and solace to them and the rest of it. You know, there will probably be some politics involved that will work itself out, and I have no idea when services will be arranged, memorial services or celebrations of life, but we'll work together on that.
The town would have to take it one step at a time. “Some folk may never recover from it. People will have different ways to mourn. People will have different ways to remember.
"Some will handle it differently than other folk. We just want to make sure that all of these people are properly taken care of. We certainly wouldn't want to see any further fallout from this particular tragedy.”
People were in “absolute shock”
“I don't think a lot of people are sleeping, just trying to comprehend. And one of the young lads who lost his life is my neighbour. I know them quite well, and that brings up a certain kind of emotion as well.
"But until there's something officially released, we can't make a lot of comments, but it is going to be hard to grasp somebody that we knew.
"You know, a person that we probably just made at the post office or just met at the grocery store would be capable of something like this. The shock is definitely going to come. And, yeah, we just do our best and work through the pain.”
