No one knows nor is anyone saying what teacher Nicholas Mills was thinking when he permitted Jeremiah Perry, and other boys who had failed their swimming tests, to go along on an excursion to Algonquin Park last year. The ability to swim was a requirement for the chance to join the field trip. As is well known, Jeremiah drowned when he slipped under the water at Big Trout Lake some 300 kilometres northeast of Toronto. Mr. Mills, 54, was the team leader that day. He also had overall responsibility for planning and execution of the trip. It was part of the school board’s program of trying to help kids who are academically, socially or emotionally challenged. Now the C.W. Jeffereys Collegiate teacher is charged with criminal negligence for permitting Perry to go on the trip. Others might have done the same. Rather than deny Perry the broadening experience and inclusion that the trip represented, they would have found the risk/reward odds favoured letting the boy go. That would have been against the rules and wrong. But it is easy to understand. CBC
