Mom of teen who died at Ont. school urges all to hold their kids tight

The mother of a 16-year-old with special needs who died at his eastern Ontario high school last month says she is broken because her boy is gone, and she wants everyone to hold their own children tight.

Landyn Ferris, had a form of epilepsy called Dravet Syndrome, and his mom says she has few answers so far as to what happened to him, aside from being told he was found alone and unresponsive in a sensory room at Trenton High School on May 14.

New Democratic Party critics, the Ontario Autism Coalition and a disability rights advocate held a joint news conference today to call for answers, for better supports in schools such as more educational assistants, and better criteria for when kids are in such rooms.

Kate Logue with the autism coalition read out a statement from Landyn’s mother, Brenda Davis, who says that day she got a text message from the school about an emergency, and by the time she rushed over she found her son on a stretcher in his classroom, receiving CPR, his fingers already blue.

She says she doesn’t know how long he had been gone before someone discovered him.

Davis says she thinks of the last time she saw her son’s smile, when she dropped him off at school that morning, but her last memory of him now is Landyn lying in a casket, surrounded by his favourite toys.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 4, 2024.