Elder questions sending youth to cities

Keewaywin Elder Peggy Kakepetum does not like seeing young people leaving her community.
“I don’t really like our young people going out anywhere,” Kakepetum said a week after Jordan Wabasse’s body was discovered in the Kaministiquia River in Thunder Bay.
She said the only safe place she can think of where Keewaywin students attend school is Pelican Falls First Nation High School just outside Sioux Lookout. The school has on site housing for students.
Wabasse, a Webequie teen attending the Matawa Learning Centre, was missing for more than three months when his body was found.
Kakepetum, who has plenty of grandchildren, questioned the safety of youth in Winnipeg or Thunder Bay.
“I don’t think it is a safe place to send your kid anymore,” Kakepetum said. “There’s a lot of things going on, especially nowadays.”
Kakepetum has often thought about the possibility of having a high school in a nearby community, noting that her community does not have a large population of high school students.
Some of the students have been using the KiHS (Keewaytinook Internet High School) to gain their high school credits.
“It’s very small here in our community,” Kakepetum said.
Kakepetum said the student accommodations under consideration for students at Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School would need plenty of staff to look after the students.
“Every time we lose a young person over there, it is always in the water,” Kakepetum said. “I often wonder why they have to go in the water. I think it’s not safe at all.”