Family remembers teen after days of death analysis

The inquest into Dylan LaChance’s death was a tough week, in a painful year for his family.

He died in Victoria Hospital of a lung infection on Sept. 19, 2013 after spending a week in Prince Albert’s Youth Residence. The facility holds youth serving out sentences or who are remanded in custody.

This came following a fight he was caught up in at Big River First Nations High School and arrested for, according to his family.

They spoke to media following the two days of testimony detailing his condition over that week in September of 2013 at an inquest into his death.

The family wanted to know, “how did something so tragic happen, how could this have happened when we’re supposed to have all these policies in place to protect our children? How could he fall through the cracks so deep that he died in that system?” said Angie Bear, who spoke on behalf of the family during the inquest and after it.

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Remembering Dylan

LaChance’s aunt Sandra spoke as well, explaining Dylan was hearing impaired his entire life.

She pointed to a photo of Dylan as a young boy with his classmates as it sparked memories for her.

His cousin was also hearing impaired, and stood just behind him in the photo.

“They would laugh. They had such long conversations in their own language,” Sandra said.

“All the pictures show him standing in the middle always. The kids were always protective of him.”

The protection extended far beyond school walls. With Big River First Nation population of 3,500 people, “we as a community look after him. We always knew where he was,” Sandra said.

Dylan didn’t now American Sign Language, instead creating his own language expressed through gestures.

“There’s 800 children in our school and he knew how to communicate with all of them. And one of the sad things is we didn’t document it we just knew that we could understand what he was saying.”

His communication helped Dylan learn cultural traditions and ceremonies like scraping a hide.

“He was a very smart boy, he was very inquisitive. He asked how to do things, that was my experience,” Sandra said.

Dylan has many siblings, and one of them was in custody at the same time as him. The family still wonders why he couldn’t go into Dylan’s cell to speak with him when he was in custody.

His family said he’d been in custody before, but only for a night. His week in custody after a life spent largely on the Big River First Nation was likely overwhelming for him.

At the end of the inquest, the presiding coroner Brent Gough, thanked the family for sitting through testimony that could be cold and analytical at times.

However, even in that testimony the family noted the compassion of strangers. One of them was Terry Sinclair, the youth worker who rode with Dylan in the ambulance to hospital. He was also present and cried when Dylan died, and has since been off work and diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Sandra said the family spoke about meeting with him in the future.

 “I think he’s quite a gifted human being to put his heart and soul into his work. Those are the kind of people that we need to be looking after our children that go into custody. Because they help them, they turn their lives around, because they could never give up on a child. But someone gave up on and Terry seemed to be the only on there to help him.”

Even with many of their questions answered at the inquest, Bear said they’re far from reaching closure.

“They were grieving and getting past that grief and I think it[the inquest] has kind of opened up that grief all over again and some new healing needs to happen,” she said.

“It’s just a matter of processing it.”

claskowski@panow.com

On Twitter: @chelsealaskowsk