The Ontario school board that launched a review after the death of one its students last year says it wants some good to come out of the process, though some details, including the boy’s cause of death, remain unclear all these months later.
“There are still some gaps for us to have a full picture of what occurred that day,” the board’s top official says.
Landyn Ferris, a Grade 10 student at Trenton High School in central Ontario, died in May 2024 — soon after his 16th birthday, and under circumstances that remain unclear.
Ferris’s family has alleged he was left alone in a private room at his school, despite staff knowing he had a condition that meant he needed careful observation.
Amid the family’s threat of a lawsuit — which remains unrealized — the Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board (HPEDSB) said little about the death.
But nearly 11 months later, the board is giving its most extended comments so far as it updates its trustees on an ongoing review of school protocols begun after Ferris’s death — though the briefing does not delve into the death itself.
“We looked inward and dealt with the information that we had to both honour Landyn but also honour our staff who are looking for ways to make a difference,” Katherine MacIver, the board’s director of education, told CBC in an interview.
“To have something positive come out of something incredibly tragic.”
On Monday, MacIver and another board official, Ken Dostaler, addressed the board’s publicly elected trustees about the review, which focused on internal processes related to students with special education and medical needs.
Ferris was in Trenton High’s life skills program for students with complex needs. According to Josh Nisker, the lawyer representing Ferris’s family, Ferris had Dravet syndrome, a rare type of genetic epilepsy that can cause seizures.
Before Ferris died, his mother had warned the school that he couldn’t be left alone, Nisker said — especially while sleeping, as that was a trigger for his seizures.
The family alleged Ferris was left by himself in a sensory room — a space to help calm or engage students in learning — only to be found cold and unresponsive some time later when staff went to put him on a school bus.
“The goal of the review was to ensure that staff have access to optimal resources, training and procedures,” Dostaler wrote in a summary report to trustees ahead of Monday’s board meeting.
Some of the planned improvements outlined in Dostaler’s update touch on issues that were relevant to Ferris’s death, some not, MacIver told CBC.
“I would say the bulk of them are just review of things we do regularly, but we’re tightening those processes up and making sure there’s tight onboarding for new staff,” Dostaler told trustees on Monday.
Among other things, the list of goals in the update includes:
The update also mentions the responsibility of parents to give schools up-to-date information on their child’s serious medical situation “as a condition of attending a school,” as well as information on medications and possible side effects.
The board will also review its sensory rooms and how they are used.
Asked what happened that day, MacIver first mentioned how the loss had a major impact on staff.
“What I could say is this is probably the worst thing ever in the lives of this family and friends and of this staff in the school. The loss of Landyn is acutely felt throughout the system, [though] nowhere near what the family is going through…” MacIver said.
“He was very loved … and he certainly is not forgotten.”
MacIver went on to say the board focused in its review on areas it could address based on the information it had. That does not include Ferris’s cause of death.
“We don’t have that information,” she said. A spokesperson for the Office of the Chief Coroner said families get copies of coroner’s reports, but not school boards.
MacIver said she could not discuss the day Ferris was found due to student and family confidentiality.
Asked whether any school staff were disciplined or dismissed as a result of what happened, she said, “We had no indication that that was necessary based on our investigation or the investigation of police.”
Nisker declined to comment for this story but confirmed Ferris’s family has still “not yet” filed any legal action.
He did not respond when asked if the family knows Ferris’s cause of death.
Photos show Ferris had a bright smile and wore superhero-themed T-shirts. He’d attended Trenton High School since Grade 6, Nisker previously told CBC.
“He kept me soft-hearted even when I was mad at the world,” his mother, Brenda Davis, said in a statement to CBC in the early days of her grief.
Ferris’s death made provincial headlines and sparked debate in the Ontario legislature. The education minister at the time, Stephen Lecce, asked critics to allow for “an independent, fulsome investigation,” pointing to parallel inquiries by the coroner’s office and the OPP. The police force did not stay involved for long because there was no indication of foul play.
For David Lepofsky, the chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance, Ferris’s death still “cries out for a public accountability” like a coroner’s inquest. (The coroner’s service says families in these circumstances can request an inquest, but they are not mandatory.)
“There’s no indication what, if any, protocols they had and what, if anything, went wrong,” Lepofsky said of the board’s update.
The board took some questions from trustees on Monday, though one, Ernie Parsons, said it might not be wise to talk about Ferris’s death, citing the “strong possibility” of a lawsuit.
“Identifying improvements is also interpreted as identifying shortfalls in the past,” he said.
MacIver said she didn’t see a problem with “identifying the fact that we can all improve in what we do” on a continual basis and concluded her remarks to trustees with a call to action.
“I would ask you to hold us accountable. Ask us about some of these goals that the team has set … Because I think we should be reporting back about how we are getting better day-to-day, month to month, year to year.”
Board chair Kari Kramp told CBC via email that trustees have “full confidence” in MacIver and staff “as they take thoughtful and informed steps” and that trustees take their own responsibility to oversee system improvements “seriously.”
