Mobile trades training facility sent to Tumbler Ridge as community builds temporary learning spaces after shooting

TUMBLER RIDGE, B.C. — The temporary mobile classroom set up for Tumbler Ridge Secondary School will get an assist from the only First Nations post-secondary institution in British Columbia.

According to a notice from School District 59 on February 27th, the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology has donated a mobile trades training facility to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in the wake of the mass shootings last month.

At a vigil for the victims, Premier David Eby promised students of Tumbler Ridge Secondary School would not have to go back into the physical building, and so temporary classrooms have been set up on the grounds of Tumbler Ridge Elementary School.

The mobile trades training unit, to be added to the temporary grounds, can train up to 100 students per year for careers in sectors such as liquefied natural gas (LNG), mining and construction. It will be donated for the duration of the school year, according to the release.

The mobile trades facility will have an instructor accompany the unit to direct school staff on its operations.

The killings, which took place on February 10th, involved 18-year old Jesse Van Rootselaar. Van Rootselaar killed five students and a member of the teaching staff.

Van Rootselaar first fatally injured both a woman and child in a nearby residence – later identified as Van Rootselaar’s mother and stepbrother – before heading to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School.

Van Rootselaar later died of a self-inflicted shotgun wound.