Students in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., begin returning to class following mass shooting

TUMBLER RIDGE — Some students headed back to classes in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., on Thursday, just over two weeks after an 18-year-old shooter killed eight people, including six at the local secondary school, before turning the gun on herself.

A message to parents posted on the Peace River South school district website said elementary students were returning to classes with shortened days Thursday and Friday, with regular schedules set to resume Monday.

Portables set up on the elementary school grounds would open for secondary students and their families to visit on Thursday, and those students may attend class for one course on Friday, said the message posted online Wednesday.

It said the “tentative plan” for next week would be for secondary students to go to school from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., but that “may change based on needs.”

The Education Ministry said the district was planning for a “gradual, trauma-informed return to learning.”

“This gradual return is intended to support students and school staff where they are at, some will be ready and some will not,” the ministry said in an email. “For some this may mean in-person learning, online learning or a hybrid approach.”

Counsellors would be available at the school site for staff and students, it said.

Jesse Van Rootselaar shot and killed her mother and half-brother at their home in Tumbler Ridge on Feb. 10, before going to the secondary school and killing five students and an educational assistant, then taking her own life.

The update from the school district said a security company has been contracted to maintain a perimeter around the Tumbler Ridge Elementary campus, while RCMP have conducted a security review and a camera system was to be installed.

The message said the two doors on each portable would be locked at all times and the elementary school doors would also be locked throughout the day.

The portables are to be equipped with a hand-held radio, and in the event of an alarm, they would receive the same message simultaneously, the district said.

Two “safer school liaison” staff will remain at the site until the spring break, along with a district counselling team, it said.

The elementary and secondary schools, now located at the same site, will have different start, break and end times to help control traffic, it noted.

Education Minister Lisa Beare said her heart is with the Tumbler Ridge community, where everyone’s healing journey will look different.

“I applaud the school district and local community leadership for supporting each member of this school community’s unique circumstances, whether it’s returning to in-person learning, online learning or supporting individuals to step away and continue to heal,” she said in a statement issued by her ministry.

“Healing from this tragedy will take time and our government will continue to provide support and guidance to the community as long as is needed.”

The superintendent of the Peace River South school district, Christy Fennell, had issued a letter to families on Feb. 13 saying the expectation was that students would not be returning to the school where the mass shooting took place.

The priority would be “emotional and physical safety through a trauma informed lens,” Fennell said in the letter.

The B.C. government announced three days later that portable facilities would be set up for secondary students, after a pledge by Premier David Eby that “not one of you will ever be forced to go back to that school.”

Later Thursday, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, told Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon that the shooter got around its ban on her problematic use of the platform by using a second account.

In a letter to the minister, the company outlined a series of “immediate steps” it was taking in response to the killings.

Eby said Thursday that the firm told his government that changes to the thresholds in its reporting protocols would have resulted in police being informed about Van Rootselaar’s ChatGPT activity, had they been in place before the killings.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 26, 2026.