With the sudden loss of of three children in a car crash last week, students, teachers and support staff at Chelmsford Public School in Sudbury continue to process their emotions and grieve — and now mental health supports are in place to help them.
The Osagie siblings died in a New Year’s Day car crash along Highway 17, near Lively.
Brothers Destiny, 11, and Flourish, 10, died at the scene. Their sister Britney, 6, died later in hospital. They were all students at Chelmsford Public School.
https://adebaconnector.com/in-sudbury-3-siblings-died-in-new-years-day-single-vehicle-crash/
Mary Jago, mental health lead for the Rainbow District School Board, said social workers are on hand now to help guide those touched by the loss through the grieving process.
“One of the first things that we want to do is advise the parents that there has been a tragedy,” she said. “It’s important that parents are actively involved in being able to share with their children in a way that makes most sense for them and about their belief systems around death and loss.”
Jago said news of the deaths was delivered on a class-by-class basis, and the information was tailored.
“It’s age and developmentally appropriate so they understand … what’s being shared with them,” she said. “And then we get to create activities with the kids so that they can be able to express themselves in whatever way that makes sense for them.”
Jago also said that supports are in place to make sure grieving teachers can still be there emotionally for their students.
“Most kids really want to talk to somebody that they already know,” she explained. “They don’t want to go and talk to a stranger. They want to talk to somebody that they trust and feel save with and in the school environment, that’s that’s their teachers and their support staff.”
Jago says in the weeks that follow, her team will be keeping a close eye on the Chelmsford students. She says once the shock wears off, other behaviors and emotions can start to manifest.
“We might start to see some anxiety or lack of focus or there might be some social distancing where kids start to isolate themselves,” she said.
“We might see anger irritability and children that we’ve not seen before … sometimes we start to see kids being absent from school and we want to pay attention to that as well. So … it’s a couple of weeks following where we also follow up and make sure that that students are being able to manage their distress.”
Police said a 10-year-old boy, not related to the other children, was airlifted to hospital with life-threatening injuries. His 45-year-old mother was also a passenger in the car and suffered minor injuries.
Pastor Christian Mgbokwere, who has been attending to Uche Osagie since the crash, said the community has been more than supportive.
Funeral home operator Gerry Lougheed has been in daily contact with the pastor, and has helped set funeral arrangements for the three children. Mgbokwere said Glad Tidings Church has been “ready to give us every assistance.”
“I’ve received calls from people I don’t know,” he said. “From the time [Osagie] was in the hospital…everybody’s really tried.”
“The whole community’s devastated,” he said. “So they are trying in any way to assist the family through these trying times. So I appreciate that so much.”
A GoFundMe page has also been set up to help ease some of the financial pressures. It’s so far raised over $17,000.
Osagie, who recently fled Nigeria, said she received a letter from Immigration Canada on December 23, saying her application to stay in the country had been rejected.
She said she was given 15 days to respond at the risk of deportation.
Osagie drove to Toronto, spending the Christmas holidays searching for a lawyer to appeal the case. She finally found a lawyer to represent her family, and was making the 400 kilometre trip back.
“My son Destiny said ‘no, I’m not going back to Nigeria,” Osagie said. “I want to live in Canada. I would rather die than be deported.”
“Today, my son is going to be buried in Canada.”
Mgbokwere added that fears of deportation plague the Nigerian community in Canada.
“Most of us here are facing the same situation, our individual claims had been rejected, most of us are awaiting their removal from here,” he said.
“We are only asking the Immigration….please if they can be able to allow us to stay here,” he said.
“A lot of families are in trauma here. If we deport them now when they get to Nigeria they face the same situation. Most of them would die of different ways.”
The funeral for the Osagie family is expected to be on January 18.
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