The use of lanyards that aren’t designed to break away have been suspended from all schools in the province following an incident in Bearspaw where an eight-year-old boy was found unconscious, strangled by his school lanyard in the door of a washroom, Dec. 12.
Another Bearspaw school student found the strangled boy and informed a teacher. The school contacted 911 emergency services and a teacher began CPR on the child, who had been choked for a maximum of four minutes, the time that elapsed from when he signed out of his classroom to use the washroom and when he was discovered.
The boy was transported to the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary where he remains in stable, but critical condition. No further details are being released on the young student.
Jeff Johnson, minister of education, sent a letter to all school boards in the province on Dec. 14 requesting students and staff who were using lanyards that didn’t break away stop immediately, confirmed Kim Capstick, press secretary for the minister on Dec. 18.
She said the request further asked school boards to take a look at the practice and policies on how lanyards are used to see if there’s anyway to improve on them.
As of press time, Earl Driedger, principal of Airdrie Koinonia Christian School said only kindergarten students use lanyards for identification purposes and they are all the breakaway type. He noted their school isn’t large enough to use lanyards for hall-passes or security.
Janet Corsten, communications coordinator with the Calgary Catholic School Board, said they are following the minister’s request and have suspended use of the lanyards for now. She suspects their policies will be reviewed sometime in 2013.
She said the suspension will only affect junior and senior high school students, who wear lanyards with their student identification tags. She said she wasn’t sure which schools used them and which schools were already using the breakaway style.
Rocky View Schools communications coordinator Angela Spanier said “of course we have complied with the ministers request” adding that school’s have been notified to discontinue the use of non breakaway lanyards.
With files from Dawn Smith
