Things that make no sense

Neelin High School in Brandon was the scene of a hate crime. A 16-year-old attacked another 16-year-old student with a sword. The victim fought off the attacker and as a result nearly lost 7 fingers among other injuries. He is now at home recovering from his physical injuries. The attacker will face charges of attempted murder, uttering threats, possession of a weapon and wearing a disguise. 

Premier Kinew and Deputy Premier and Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara visited with the victim in his family home. Kinew gave the student, who is a Nigerian Canadian, the Premier's Challenge Coin. This coin is given to deserving individuals at the premier's discretion. Kinew also apologized on behalf of the Indigenous people for the attack. He told the family that he had to do that because he had to take responsibility.   

Kinew's message was that this province is for everyone. No one should fear for their safety because of the color of their skin. No child should feel unsafe in a place of learning. 

Hate crimes are difficult to understand. I can't imagine what it was like for the other students and staff that witnessed the act of violence. The teachers must have been terrified as they waited with their students in lock down. This was not a drill it was really happening. The teachers and students would have little knowledge of what was truly going on outside of the locked door. This incident will affect Neelin the most, but all of the schools will think, it could have been their school. School should be a safe place for learning to occur, and a chance to hang out with your friends. It saddens me to think that every student and teacher practices a lock down drill and for some they have had to activate it.   

The victim's physical injuries will heal; the psychological healing may take some time. There is no doubt that other students will be struggling with how they feel about their safety at school. What a difficult time for the education community everywhere.  

Recently an 18-year-old went missing. After several days of searching, his body was recovered from the river. His family have some closure in knowing that he is deceased and not missing. They are now faced with trying to get answers to the many other questions that created their loss.    

Disaster has a way of making people aware of life. In our life in Manitoba, we have the "HEART" team. It stands for the "Hutterite Emergency Aquatic Rescue Team". They will respond to a situation if the family asks for their help. They are scuba divers that will search for a missing person. They work closely with other rescue efforts. I understand they work tirelessly in any situation and never give up. 

The "HEART" team is from the Oak Bluff colony near Morris Manitoba. The team volunteers their services for emergency water search and rescues in southern Manitoba and beyond. They have seven trained scuba divers and 3 other trained rescue members on shore. They are also trained to work with remote operated vehicles and sonar technology. They are a non-profit, charitable organization that rely heavily on donations and sponsorship. They fundraise to buy their equipment. 

There are so many sad things that are going on in our country and the world. As we get older, we seem to fixate on the most current disaster. Right now, there are several families that are grieving or trying to make sense of what just happened to their life as they knew it. In a blink of an eye, life can change and for them it did. It seems if we could just make sense of what happened, it would be so much easier to accept. Sadly, the reality is, that it can be a lifelong journey to try and understand when things don't make sense.