Two staff members of a Halifax-area high school detailed their trauma and fears in emotional victim impact statements in court Tuesday, in the sentencing for a teenager who pleaded guilty in relation to a 2023 stabbing.
The two staff members were stabbed at Charles P. Allen High School in the community of Bedford, N.S. — a suburb of Halifax — on March 20, 2023. Both adults were taken to hospital with serious wounds.
The 16-year-old’s identity is protected from publication because of his age. He pleaded guilty in March to to two counts of aggravated assault in Nova Scotia youth justice court.
“I may never know why the offender caused me such grievous harm that morning. Why he showed up with four weapons,” Wayne Rodgers read from a statement.
“I kept thinking, ‘This can’t be it! I’m going to die.'”
Reading from inside the courtroom, Rodgers — who was the school’s administrator at the time of the incident — described the hours after the attack. He was in hospital having an emergency surgery to repair his diaphragm.
The unanesthetized surgery was explained to the court as the “most incredible pain” he had ever endured.
The statement also laid out his frustration with the court process.
“To witness how charges of attempted murder can be negotiated down to aggravated assault, how restrictions in a release order can be so easily amended with absolutely no input or seeming regard for victims is mindboggling and to be quite frank … alarming,” he said.
“I ask that you take into full consideration that the only reason I am able to read my statement today is that I got lucky and survived. I ask that you take into full consideration the harm that the offender has caused me and my family.”
The Crown indicated to the judge Tuesday that it is seeking 18 months in custody and six months of probation, which is the maximum allowable time for the offence under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
A statement from the other staff member also described the emotional and physical trauma caused by the incident.
“There was so much blood, my artery was hit and my lung was punctured. I thought I was going to die on that office floor,” Angela Light said.
“I called my mom and dad to say goodbye.”
The sentencing hearing, which began last month, has heard from two expert witnesses: a psychiatrist and a psychologist who provided treatment to the teen after he was arrested for the stabbings.
The judge will make make a sentencing decision at a later date.
— with files from The Canadian Press and Global News’ Rebecca Lau