Retracing Manners' final steps 'horrifying': aunt

One year after Jordan Manners was gunned down inside his North York high school, the teen's life was commemorated with a plaque and a memorial tree.

C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute held several assemblies on Friday in honour of the 15-year-old murder victim, who was remembered as a good student with a bright smile.

Manners' mother, Loreen Small, visited the school for the first time since her son's death. Relatives said it was a difficult day for the family.

"Everyone is really distraught and upset and feeling like everything's happening all over again," said the boy's aunt Louisa.

Family members walked through the hallways and ended up at the spot where Manners was shot.

"Standing at the spot where my nephew either took his last breath or where they picked up him up and put him on a gurney ... it was much, much more than horrifying," Louisa.

The sign outside the school read, "One heart, one life, one love. RIP Jordan."

Students shared their personal tributes in the afternoon to mark the tragic anniversary.

Staff and students said it was an emotional day but one that is needed for the healing process.

"It's really tough -- it's just reminding us everything about what's happened," said one teenager.

"It's still really hard to come to the fact that he is gone, but day by day, you have to be strong about it," said Manners' godsister Sarah Grant.

Principal Jim Spyropoulous said staff members were there to talk to students who needed help getting through the ceremonies.

"I think that each and every student is dealing with it in their own way, and if we have 900 students at Jefferys today, we have 900 adolescents who are dealing with it in the way that they best can, and we're trying to be as supportive to them as possible," he said.

Changes made

Gerry Connelly, the Toronto District School Board's director of education, says the board has made many changes after the slaying to make schools safer.

"A lot has happened. I'm very heartened by what the community is saying, I'm very heartened by what the staff and students are saying in terms of the shifting culture in the school," Connelly said.

"What we are addressing is the need for transparency to break the culture of silence ... and we have taken some very specific steps."

She said some of the changes include a safety hotline for students, more hall monitors, better policies to protect girls from violence, and additional police officers in schools to work with students, not to patrol them.

After Manners was killed in the hallway of his school on May 23, 2007, the School Community Safety Advisory Panel was formed to investigate violence in Toronto schools.

The panel released a report earlier this year that concluded some schools are a hotbed for harassment and violence.

On Tuesday, the TDSB released a report recommending more policies aimed at improving safety, including better educating students about guns and gangs, Internet safety and drugs.

Two 17-year-olds have been charged with the first-degree murder in the shooting. Police have not commented on the motive for the killing.

With reports from CTV Toronto's Matet Nebres and Janice Golding