Child's disappearance 'every parent's worst nightmare' Jordana Huber,
National Post Tuesday, Apr 14, 2009
WOODSTOCK, Ont. -- As children returned to school here Tuesday morning following an Easter break, counsellors were on hand to speak with the students about their eight-year-old classmate who vanished without a trace after school last Wednesday. Sally Christensen, school psychologist and head of the traumatic events team for the school district, said eight crisis counsellors will be available to discuss any concerns the children might have about Victoria "Tori" Stafford and her disappearance. Tori's classmates will be offered the chance to make purple ribbons for their school mates, said Ms. Christensen.
Purple is Tori's favourite colour and residents of Woodstock have been wearing purple ribbons to show solidarity with the girl's family. "This is something they can do to help," she said. "They are little and there is not much else they can do," she said, adding she has been speaking with teachers about the best way to deal with students. A spokeswoman for the Thames Valley District School Board said classes will go ahead as usual. "We want to make the day as normal as possible and I know that is going to be tough for everyone," said Kate Young.
"I am sure every parent at this school and every parent in Woodstock and in Ontario and Canada is thinking twice about how their children are getting to and from school today." Parents and grandparents dropping children off at school Tuesday morning expressed mixed emotions as students returned to classes. "I'm terrified for my children," said Heather Ditchfield whose children are eight and 13. "I can't let them go anywhere without me." She said it is difficult to explain to her children what has happened to Tori. "You have no answers for them. I have no answers for my kids. I can't comfort them," she said. Parent Jeff Ebel said he has reinforced the importance of not talking to strangers but will still allow his children in grades 2 and 8 to walk to school together. "Everybody's doing the same things. We are emphasizing safety," he said. "You have to be protective, but you also have to go on."
On Monday, police called off the search for Tori, saying they believe the child is still alive. Oxford Community Police Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland told media that she was still hopeful about the probe into the whereabouts of the little girl. Const. Maitland said there has been no evidence found to support the possibility she met with foul play. Officers from the Ontario Provincial Police behavioral sciences unit spent Sunday reviewing the case with local police, and Const.
Maitland said police would begin another ground search only if new information surfaces. Rob Stafford, Tori's uncle, has posted a Facebook plea for the safe return of the Grade 3 student. As of Tuesday morning, nearly 40,000 people had joined the online group, which asks for Tori's safe return -- no questions asked. Johanne Barrette, a family friend of Tori's mother, Tara McDonald, said it is a struggle to remain positive.
"She's not doing good, but she is hanging in there," Ms. Barrette said. On Sunday, hundreds of people gathered at a vigil for Tori. She was last seen in a fuzzy surveillance video, walking without a struggle with an unidentified woman just before she went missing after classes had been let out. Her disappearance has shaken this community of 35,000 and has left parents uneasy.
"This is every parent's worst nightmare," said Woodstock Mayor Mike Harding. "We expect our children to be safe on the streets and they, by and large, are. When these things happen, I think it rattles us to the core and hopefully, we don't overreact." Across Woodstock, about 150 kilometres southwest of Toronto, posters with photos of Tori are taped to utility poles and lining store windows and car windshields.
3 comments:
There are pictures of Tori on some poles here in Stratford, about 25 miles from Woodstock.
Crime Experts from the US are blaming the Woodstock police for waiting until the next day to announce anything and it was very vague.
I think it very odd, myself
I don't suspect any police misconduct here. When they aren't circling the wagon protecting their own, behaving like a gang, they do a good job of day-to-day tasks, I gather.
In the back of a cruiser for about 15 minutes I heard three suspected homes with firearms they had to enter, one with shotguns. I suspect they have better things to do than market themselves in Woodstock.
Unrelated but relevant to this blog, people's brains "cure" when we hit mid-20s. Right now childrens are immune, teens sometimes get charged as minors and rarely as adults. And adult sentencing is guaranteed at 18. The shouldn't be until 25 and there should be a new category of sentencing to reflect, IDK, puberty(?) to 24 year old crimes.
In the future we'd also want some sort of "predisposition and mitigating circumstances" profile constructed with a checklist of things that would make a rational person violent. Judges already do this but it shouldn't be so subjective. If someone was physically abused and went through bad foster families or is IQ 80 (no specific example), that person should get a lesser sentence for murder than if someone sits around getting drunk in a bar looking for passersby to kill (happened here in Wpg and the light senstence makes me want to kill too).
Drinking and driving killing with 0.4 BA is way worse than just over limit. But once again, circling the wagon is what what gangs do like in the Afghanistan Pakistan border region.
Probably should be retraining to serve mental illness and cybercrime en masse. And get rid of spam.
me
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