Shawville, Que. high school students plunge head-first into ice safety learning

Students from Pontiac High School in Shawville received real-life experience in how to stay safe on the ice. CTV’s Dylan Dyson reports.

Grade 10 and 11 students at Pontiac High School in Shawville, Que. received some cool real-world education on ice safety and cold-water rescue Thursday.

Students enrolled in specialty firefighting and outdoor education secondary school classes received specialized learning on the topics lead by Boreal River Rescue.

“Ice safety is such an important issue in this area,” said Pontiac High School and outdoor education teacher Jordan Kent.

“All these students at some point in the winter are probably going to go on the ice, whether they’re ice fishing or snowmobiling.”

Before taking a field trip to a frozen lake in Shawville Thursday, students undertook homework assignments on ice safety and dry land equipment training to prepare for the hands-on learning portion.

“We’re starting with how to assess ice,” said Danny Peled, director at Boreal River Rescue, based in Ottawa.

“That’s what we’re doing right now to determine the thickness and to understand hazardous conditions. Then we are going to start doing self rescues. If you fall through, how to get yourself out, and then we’re going to start getting into rescuing other people as well.”

For grade 11 and outdoor education student Faith Hamilton, learning real world skills was a welcome change to the typical desk work.

“I think this is actually amazing,” Hamilton told CTV News.

“It’s so fun to actually learn a skill that we can put into use, especially in our area with so many activities like snowmobiling, ice fishing, all this sort of things. These things happen, like, in a second. So it’s great that I can learn this just in case.”

All 16 students suited up in cold water suits and plunged into a section the classes help cut out of the ice.

“It was a bit cold. It went through [the top of the zipper],” said Hamilton.

“So it went down a little and I was like ah! But it was funny because when the water comes up, it compresses you, and it’s not what you expect.”

In rural regions such as the Pontiac or Renfrew County where open and live water is prevalent, instructors deem these skills necessary to learn at a young age.

“They have the opportunity to live in this space with all these lakes and rivers,” said Peled. “But they need to understand where that real risk is versus what we could do safely.”

“We do have (tragic) incidents every year and having this group of students learn these kinds of skills and be are aware of the risk, that’s just going to help themselves and the whole community as well,” added Kent.

Kent says that students who graduate from post secondary after completing the ice safety and cold-water rescue training will also be given a professional certificate confirming the comprehension of the skills, attributes Kent says can aid the community in the future.

“It’s just a great way to make sure that this region has volunteer firefighters,” said Kent.

“The towns around here, that’s what we rely on. So now we’re going to have a group of students graduating next year with the certification to be able to become volunteer firefighters.”

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