Students and staff at PGSS and across School District 57 are mourning the stabbing death of a 17-year-old student.
According to the Prince George RCMP, it happened during the early morning hours on Thursday along the 1600 block of Pine Street where the student was rushed to hospital but didn’t survive.
Superintendent and CEO, Jameel Aziz told MyPGNow.com the school board was pretty proactive in getting counselling services in place once students returned from Spring Break.
“Our critical emergency response team met on Good Friday with the principal and administration at PGSS to begin formulating our plan for support for the students not only in the PGSS community but also at the previous schools the student attended, which is Harwin and Duchess Park.”
“The tone overall as we would expect, has been pretty studious. We all need to check and maintain for ongoing support that families, students and others connected to the incident will need.”
Police say three youth suspects were arrested soon after the call was made, the investigation is ongoing.
“These kinds of occurrences are never easy and certainly my concern was for the family initially and then of course the staff and school communities who have been affected by this. Unfortunately, loss is something that occurs in school systems, not in this way but quite often so I think school systems are well-versed in the planning and preparation to address people’s challenges,” added Aziz.
Aziz has only been on the job as SD 57 Superintendent for roughly a week as his appointment took effect on March 25th after being hired on in the New Year.
He joined the school district from the Yellowknife Education District, where he was Superintendent of Schools and CEO.
Aziz previously held several roles in education, including Assistant Superintendent of Schools for School District 58 in Nicola Similkameen, as well as a Principal in Kamloops.