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The short path leading to the back doors of St. Joan of Arc School has become a treacherous walk for Cheryl Gunja and her seven-year-old daughter, Vivian, who have to slip and slide over 30 cm of packed snow and ice before they make it to the school doors.

Last week on their regular walk to school, Gunja said she broke her kneecap when she slipped and fell trying to help her daughter down the path. That same day, Gunja said two other children — one who was sent to hospital with a bloody face — wiped out on the same path.

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“Someone is going to get seriously hurt,” Gunja said. “This isn’t just a regular walkway — it’s a walkway right beside the school used Monday to Friday by 200-plus kids, morning and afternoon.”

While there is a longer path leading to the front of the school that has been cleared, Gunja said the majority of students trek across the slippery side path to enter the school through the back.

Neighbours and parents with kids attending the school have been complaining about the icy walkway for months, and Gunja said a petition was even started by community members to instate a crossing guard to help direct vehicles and pedestrians in an area she said is “heavily trafficked daily.”