The principal at Lambton-Kent Composite School in Dresden is not going to let Tuesday’s incident at the Remembrance Day ceremony deter their school from carrying on an annual tradition.
Scott McKelvie told the Sydenham Current that the Dresden students will march to the cenotaph again next year.
“We really believe in it here,” he said. “We are reflecting it and discussing any changes that should occur prior to next year.”
McKelvie said all of the students who experienced illness yesterday and who were brought to hospital are recovering today.
Yesterday “a few of the students experienced illness, whether it was fainting or trouble breathing due to anxiety or whatever reason,” McKelvie said. “Of the students that were transported to hospital, none of them were admitted and just today, of the 12 students who had health issues or health concerns yesterday at the cenotaph, 10 of them are at school today. The two that are not at school, are at home resting and are expected back at school soon.”
McKelvie said a “domino effect” was created after one student fainted during the Remembrance Day service.
“I’m not a specialist by any means, but our students did walk to the cenotaph, we were standing for an extended period of time,” he said. “There was one individual that did faint initially and I think a lot of students had never seen that before. A second student did faint and that led to other students being concerned about these particular students, and it just dominoed after that, where we had a total of 12 students who had health concerns.”
McKelvie said he met with fire officials later in the day yesterday to hear their thoughts on the situation.
“They are reflecting on what may or may not have been an issue,” he said. “The bottom line is, we will march again next year and hopefully whatever led to this situation yesterday, if we do find out it was a particular thing, that it would be rectified by then. At this point we’ve communicated with all of the parents, and the majority of students are back to school today.”
McKelvie said he has not been in contact with the Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit at this point.
“Again, I’ve met with the fire officials and the different groups that were downtown, they’re monitoring the situation at this point,” he said.
Steve Pancino, General Manager for Medavie EMS Chatham-Kent, told the Sydenham Current yesterday none of students conditions were serious, and the three transported to hospital were taken for further observation only.
“It started with one student suffering a syncopal episode (passing out) which triggered a ‘domino effect’ with other students,” he said.
Dr. David Colby, the medical officer of health for Chatham-Kent, told The Chatham Daily News that what happened on Tuesday in downtown Dresden is not unheard of.
He said it was unusual to have a fairly high number of people lose consciousness a short time frame, although it is common for people to sporadically faint when standing for long periods.
He this is a legitimate phenomenon, but he didn’t feel there was any health hazards present.
Reports say similar situations happened yesterday in Waterloo, Kitchener and Cambridge – check out this story.
We’ll provide more information as it becomes available.
