On May 23, Loreen Small will mark a sombre anniversary.
It will be 15 years since her youngest child, 15-year-old Jordan Manners, was murdered inside a Toronto school.
Jordan, a Grade 10 student from C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute, was the first student in Toronto to be shot and killed inside a school. On Monday, 18-year-old Jahiem Robinson was fatally shot inside David and Mary Thomson Collegiate Institute. He becomes the second student to earn that sad distinction.
“I didn’t want to see another family go through what I’ve gone through and it happened again,” she said, standing outside her home in North York, now a grandmother to four.
For Small, Robinson’s murder has brought painful memories back from May 2007. Jordan was shot in a stairwell in the North York school. There were two trials involving teen suspects. One ended in a mistrial, the second with acquittals. In Robinson’s case, police say the Grade 12 student was slain in an execution-style killing, calling it “targeted.”
A 14-year-old boy has been charged with first-degree murder and the attempted murder of another 18-year-old. Police say the suspect pointed a gun at the second victim, but for some reason, did not fire.
“How are they going to do anything to make a school safer? How? I tried. Nothing happened,” she said stoically, concerned for the safety of her own four grandchildren who attend Toronto public schools.
After Jordan’s murder, high-profile lawyer Julian Falconer was named to head the School Community Safety Advisory Panel, which was formed to analyze school safety issues. Falconer found that schools mirror the communities they serve, concluding “there are firearms and weapons in non-trivial numbers in select TDSB schools across the city.” Falconer wrote that “strategies directed at detection, deterrence and removal of weapons must be considered.”
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In 2008, uniformed police officers known as school resource officers, or SROs, were placed in dozens of high schools across the city. But in 2017, trustees with the TDSB voted to end the controversial program after a school board report found that some students felt intimidated, uncomfortable or that they were being watched at school.
Small said it hurt when the SRO program was cancelled.
“It was a way for a lot of kids to reach out and go and talk to the officer that was in the school and maybe that one child that reached out to the officer that was in the school made a difference, you never know.”
Small said things have gotten worse.
“Not just in the schools but outside. A lot of young kids are killing kids and you know it’s hurtful.”
She is sad for the school community and understands their pain and fear. But said she knew there would be another fatal school shooting.
“Well, of course it’s going to happen and it will happen again. It will happen again. As I stand here, it will happen again.”
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14-year-old boy charged with 1st-degree murder after shooting at Toronto school, police say -
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Police investigating after fatal shooting at Toronto high school
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