The drowning of 15-year-old Toronto student Jeremiah Perry during summer credit course in Algonquin Park was a tragedy. His parents, teachers, family and friends are devastated and will deal with this loss for the rest of their lives.

Tragedies like these are particularly frightening for parents and the adults who work with children because it highlights the fact that risks cannot be totally eliminated — only minimized. This case hit particularly close to home for me because I have a son the same age as Jeremiah and I used to be the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) program co-ordinator for outdoor education.

Jeremiah attended C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute, which has been particularly hard hit by tragedy. In 2007, Jordan Manners was shot inside the hallways. In 2013, Violet Liang was struck and killed by a dump truck while walking to the school to start her first day of Grade 10.

After the shock of such incidents, we are forced to analyze the situation and see what we could have done differently. Risk management involves assessing the risks and rewards to ensure the right balance has been struck.

After Jordan Manners’ shooting, The School Community Safety Panel was convened and made sweeping recommendations to improve school safety.

When Violet Liang was killed, the focus was on improving traffic safety in school zones.

Between the time Jeremiah disappeared on Tuesday and his body was recovered from Big Trout Lake on Wednesday, trustees and board spokespeople were already fielding questions about student/staff ratios, qualifications, swim tests and the future of similar trips.

Outdoor education covers a broad range of activities that can happen as close to the classroom as the schoolyard and as far away as a wilderness area. The Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario (COEO) is “a non-profit, volunteer-based organization that promotes safe and high quality outdoor education experiences for people of all ages” and “acts as a professional body for outdoor educators in the province of Ontario.”

The council has gathered extensive research showing the important role outdoor education can play in every child’s education.

The TDSB supports outdoor education in many ways. In addition to installing outdoor classrooms, visits to public parks and experiences through non-board programs, it operates 10 Outdoor Education Centres (five for day trips and five for overnight stays) — a significant investment of resources.

As a student and new immigrant, school-sponsored outdoor education experiences were my only exposure to activities such as hiking, orienteering and cross-country skiing. As a teacher, I strived to provide these experiences for my own students and spent many sleepless nights away from my family, kept awake by the weight of the responsibility of the students in my charge. However, spending time with my students outside of the classroom allowed us to see each other in a different light and I believed in the value of outdoor education.

Then, as the outdoor education program co-ordinator, risk management permeated every decision I made.

During my term, I had to weigh many issues. I was in constant contact with the transportation department during inclement weather. Was it safe enough for the students to travel or would they have to miss the experience?

I worked with multiple departments to develop protocols when bedbugs became an increasing problem. How do we minimize the number of students impacted by an infestation?

And I worked with dedicated and passionate staff at the centres to ensure the programs we offered were safe, effective and met curriculum guidelines. How can we minimize risk while still offering exciting experiential learning?

The C.W. Jefferys’ school website states that the excursion to Algonquin Park is part of “ … a continuum of Outdoor Adventure Based Learning Opportunities” in its leadership program. It goes on to say that the “Leadership program has transformed students into confident, capable leaders, not just within the school, but also within the broader community as well.”

The TDSB Board Policy P.033 SCH, Excursions and its supporting documents is already 70 pages long. It outlines the procedures to be followed and defines a category of high-care activities “that involve increased risk and/or special safety considerations.”

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When a student dies during any school related activity, questions need to be asked. We need to find out whether everything possible was done to minimize the risk. If no, what could have been done differently? If yes, are the potential rewards of such an activity worth the associated risks?