Montreal school kids try to cope with boy's death

Max Harrold

Published: Wednesday, November 14, 2007

MONTREAL - What if it had been me?

The question echoed through Horizon-Soleil elementary school in St. Eustache, Que., Tuesday, as students imagined themselves in the shoes of two students in a schoolyard spat Monday that ended in the death of a 12-year-old boy.

"It was a shock to hear that Yannick was dead," student Rebecca Simard-Lavigne, 10, said about Yannick Charpentier, a Grade 6 student who died after being punched at least once in the chest by an 11-year-old girl.

Many students knew the boy had a heart condition, she said, but "I thought he was going to survive it."

A team of psychologists, counsellors and social workers were on hand at the school in St. Eustache, just northwest of Laval, Que., for students who requested to meet with them. A school board official could not say how many students did, however.

Kids were talking about the incident in and out of classes, said Simard-Lavigne, who left at lunchtime with her mother because of a toe injury.

There was a lot of sadness about Yannick, she said, but also talk about the girl, who wasn't at school Tuesday, and what she might be going through.

"She is sad now and she will live with this for the rest of her life."

Rebecca said students considered the death unintentional and many wondered what it must have been like for the boy and the girl who fought.

"If it was myself I would have asked 'why did I do that?' and if I was in the place of the boy then I would have asked myself 'why did this happen to me?'"

The 11-year-old girl involved in the fight will be evaluated by Youth Protection officials before she returns to her studies at Horizon-Soleil, he added.

Yves Marcotte, director of communications for the Commission scolaire de la Seigneurie des Milles Iles, said there may be some type of gesture from students this week, like a huge banner inscribed with students' messages.

"Changing schools, being home schooled or receiving special education and counselling are among options that will be considered," said Marcotte.

George Honos, a cardiologist at the Jewish General Hospital and a spokesperson for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, said deaths like the Yannick's are extremely rare.

Yannick had an irregular heart beat, a condition known as arrhythmia. But he was not at any greater risk of sudden death because of a blow to the chest than a person without the condition, Honos said.

The type of blow that can cause a fatally irregular heartbeat must be administered at a specific spot on the chest and during the most vulnerable part of the cardiac cycle, a split-second of every heartbeat, he said, adding such rare deaths are usually the results of blows to the chest by "a baseball, a hockey puck, sometimes a punch."

Montreal Gazette

mharrold@thegazette.canwest.com