Yesterday, my wife and I were on a school trip with our daughter to Black Creek Pioneer Village. On the way back to her school our bus drove past the Jane / Finch community where Jordan Manners used to live before he was tragically shot and killed in his high school hallway.

As we drove past his old neighbourhood I couldn’t help but think back to the day after Jordan was killed. I had the opportunity to counsel some of his friends in his HighSchool. I remember talking with a young man who was in shock as he relived with me what had happened. He shared with me that he had heard the gun shot and ran into the hallway only to see his buddy dying on the ground while someone tried their best to resuscitate him. While I was thinking through this experience of listening to these grieving teens my wife brought me back to the reality at hand taking place on our bus filled with grade three students. Four of the kids, who we were responsible for, were beginning to act out.

I dove back into action dealing with the two little girls and two little boys, from another “high – risk” community in our city, that were under our watch. These were four little troublemakers were cute as buttons, full of potential and life but they had horrible role models and livied in a tough environment. As we regained some form of peace my wife Jude whispered in my ear; “It is so sad.These little girls will be taken advantage of by someone in four years.” Her words broke my heart for they were so true.

I then looked at one of the boys who had hung out with me the whole trip. We had built an item together in the wood shop of the pioneer village we had just visited. I asked myself; “What about him? What will happen to him?” He was so grateful that I had taken the time to build something with him and kept thanking me for being his ‘wood working’ buddy.