How Vancouver students are healing after a major tragedy right in front of their school

Aether Rocero describes witnessing the alleged assail at the Lapu-Lapu daylight fete, which left wing 11 people deadened and dozens more injured, as "terrifying."

The now-graduated 17-year-old was one of many John Oliver Secondary School students in Vancouver who were affected by the incident — the school is located at East 43rd Avenue and Fraser Street, where a car drove into a crowd of people at the Filipino street festival on April 26. 

But community members say students have found healing through connection — and art. 

This fall, students will create a mural to cover the wall of the school's basketball and tennis courts, which overlook East 43rd Avenue. 

"It reminds us that it's not just bad things that had happened on that street," said Rocero. "It's, in a way, reclaiming." 

After volunteering at the Lapu-Lapu Day festival, Rocero describes how bleak it was attending school the following Monday. 

"It was really, really sad and just depressing and quiet ... I had to quite literally relive that every time I had to go to school," he said. 

But he says at school, he found an outlet to express his feelings in a way that was healing: painting. 

"These are actually my feelings on a page, on a wall," he said. "It's just another way to express that grief, as well as that pride of the community, and how much closer we had gotten after everything happened." 

Mar Cortez, a local artist who had already been working with the kids, had a classroom open the first week after the tragedy for students to drop in and paint anytime they couldn't be in class.

"Sometimes, really there's just no words and that's why I really like to offer that tactile movement of making art." 

Cortez is spearheading the school's mural, which will feature flowing colourful ribbons, students playing together and planting seeds, sampaguita blossoms — the Filipino national flower – and a phoenix rising from the ashes.

She says the images featured are about celebrating Filipino culture and remembering those who were impacted, while also moving forward. 

"There are times where the grief is real and heavy — I have this ethos of being able to express it is better than holding it in," said Cortez.

"They are trying to build their life around this tragedy and still be teenagers at the end of the day." 

A run club, friendship speed dating, clothing and food drives, hip-hop dance, basketball, hiking, leadership programs and mental-health facilitation groups — These are just some of the initiatives that John Oliver students have helped organize and taken part in over the summer and into the new school year.

A group of community organizations and stakeholders have been able to help students run these programs with a grant meant to support those affected by the tragedy.

"These youths are incredible," said Alison McKenzie, director of The Landing Youth Centre, one of the organizations involved. 

She says despite the tragedy, students in the community are optimistic about their futures and willing to learn.  

Rocero, who is helping out with the mural, hopes it will remind people to celebrate the Fraser Street community and Filipino culture. 

"There is a light at the end of the tunnel," he said. "You just have to keep walking."

---

---