A new school in a remote northern Ontario indigenous community has been closed for more than a month after a malfunctioning sprinkler system flooded the building.
Band council members in Attawapiskat First Nation say the break inside the $30 million elementary school, the only one available to serve the roughly 400 students in the community, leaving much of one floor under water.
Get daily National news
Chief Executive Wayne Turner says there have been no classes since the sprinkler malfunctioned on Jan. 7.
READ MORE: Attawapiskat chief: Trudeau government ‘is listening,’ but new funding isn’t enough
He says repairs to the building are underway and hopes students will be back in the school in a matter of weeks.
- ‘Really upsetting’: N.S. mom says son with autism can’t attend school full time due to staffing
- Dawson community marks 20 years since college shooting
- New Brunswick launches subsidized school lunch program amid rollout delays
- Online harms are the biggest threat to Canadian children, new report finds
The triumphant opening of the school in 2014 put an end to a 14-year period during which the community had to teach its youngest students in portable classrooms due to a lack of proper facilities.
Turner says the latest setback, one of many for a community that’s been grappling with a youth suicide crisis and a chronic housing shortage, is very disheartening.
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.