Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 24, 1995, Winnipeg, Manitoba Inside Story Winnipeg free press july gangs prey on Core kids slain boys teacher fears for class by Tony Davis and Kim Guttormson staff most teachers heave a sigh of Relief when school lets out for the summer but Anastasia Dereniuk in worried sick when the end of june at least when they Are at you know the kids Are said who teaches at David Livingstone school on Flora Avenue in Winnipeg inner Dereniuk was More anxious than usual when she heard on the radio that a 13yearold boy had been shot dead in the Vicinity of the i was just sick when i heard Dereniuk said yesterday i she popped in at one Flora Avenue just a few houses away from where the boy had been to see i if one of her was the he want but another of her Joseph known As Beeper to he was a Nice full of 1 Dereniuk said of a student in her Grade 7 i Dereniuk took a Day from her summer Holiday to Check up on her students kids whose lives Are too Keith puce free press police officers examine site where was shot dead Early yesterday spences Nick reflects on shot in the often tainted by tragedy and i cant say in surprised this Hap she adding she had taught Spence for Only a Dereniuk described Spence As a migrant kid who had bounced around from one school to like Many kids from the he was rumoured to have run with a gang in this the Indian they All hang around gangs said who has taught at David Livingstone for eight its a sign of the times in this one 13yearold David living Stone loitering in front of the daycare Centre where Spence was said he was initiated into the Indian posse after being beaten up by some but i dropped the he said of getting out of the identified by its White and Black he said the which Primar ily steals cars and beats up other were too cheap they were no but he said lots of other class mates still run with the for yesterdays murder was the second time in just Over a year that she lost a student to Vio in the Spring of Trevor was killed by a shot gun blast in what was said to be a Gan related Dereniuk said David Livingstone students had written and staged a play to persuade others to stay out of gangs and shun we Hope proactive programs like that will work to keep kids said the gang problems have never seemed As bad As they Are she some residents of the neighbor Hood the gang activity was de Clining Over the last couple of but seems to be picking up in the last this place is go ing said one who didst want to give her theres a lot of crazy things going on around theres so Many hookers and sometimes the place looks like a it makes me but at the same time its so Grace whose Daugh Soninlaw and grandchildren live in the said incidents like this frighten in More worried than they she said of her who knew another woman said she loves the but Doest think she can live there any this was Way too close to she holding her my kids go to that Day it was right in front of my kids Day this is getting out of angry coach loses second Pitcher to a Bullet i by Tony Davis staff reporter Rick Johnston is angry but it makes him even More in a startling repeat of a tragedy last year in which his Star i Trevor was killed in a Gan related the Little league coach is mourning the loss of 1 yet another Young 1 the 13yearold played on a pee wee team called the Indian and me tis Friendship Centre while Johnstons other the was in Rose do Lac to fight for the provincial Mosquito c championship this Spence was fighting for his life after being shot in the Back by an unknown As its Johnston theres another one Johnston said the boys senseless deaths Only make him More deter mined to get kids off the streets and into healthy like the a team of intercity astounded everyone this year by winning the City the team lost the provincial championship to Altona he loved to Johnston said of its a but it makes me want to fight even in not throwing in any like Sanderson who played for the Friendship centres also attended David Livingstone school on Flora the same Tough school where Johnston culled most of the 10 and 11yearolds on the Hawks Paul Lac asses Paul is one of those Lacasse didst want to speak about violence in his neigh he wanted to talk about How the Hawks symbolize Hope for kids in the neighbourhood and How organized sports can pull kids off the streets and on to the kids in this neighbourhood Are not bad kids to begin said they just Haven got a lot of and in this Short Hes seen changes come Over his son and the other All they talked about was base and How much they loved friends mourn upbeat Beeper he was full of but his life was Cut Short yesterday by a fatal shot in the thirteen Earold Joseph known As Beeper to his died on a Street Corner Early yester Day morning after being shot from a Van that sped police believe the shooting was the former Grade 7 students Northend neighbourhood was trying to absorb the Shock Al though Many residents witnessed the fallout of the crime after being awakened just after 2 by a gun who friends say belonged to the Indian posse lived a transient staying with his grandparents during the week and dividing weekend time Between his fatherland All of them live near the area where he was teacher Anastasia Dereniuk said Spence spent the last month of this school year in her Grade 7 class at David Livingstone she described him As a out talkative he ran into some trouble in but never anything serious enough for him to get kicked said his Nick said the family had been living where Spence was chased and beaten up by gang Mem Grisdale said his grandson was often afraid to go to but As he grew taller was beginning to fight the family recently moved to a House on Sinclair a girl in the neighbourhood where Spence was shot said she had known him for every time i seen him he was Jok ing around with she he had a Good sense of he was a Good other residents described Spence As kind and one woman said he was extremely Bright and was always asking ques Tion after Hes a really Good she it should never have he had an inquiring its too bad it had to go to Freedom from bars and Brick Walls court Challenge of archaic Law Boon to mentally handicapped by Catherine Mitchell staff reporter the bars and Brick Walls Are vivid in their but its the untold stories of hundreds of mentally handicapped people forced to live behind the Stark trappings that haunt these and it gives Ron and Jean no Bess quiet pleasure knowing that because of their Many people who were stripped of their rights and taken to provincial institutions will soon get a Chance to say where they want to some Manitoban live under whats called an order of contained within the archaic mental health act its with the signature of two on people deemed to be mental loses control under the the usually through the Public trustees takes Over and the handicapped person loses control of his or her this process is started after feels a mentally handicapped individual is not capable of looking after himself or most often they were placed in residences such As the Manitoba developmental Pelican Lake training Centre or the Amant in september the no Besses came within minutes of watching their son Derek being carted away to the Manitoba developmental Centre in Portage la we saw what it looked like there at the says Ron it was Brick Walls and the Centre was lacked supervision and the room the i lives on no Besses were shown housed 14 we of my no no Bess recalled of the now was diagnosed autistic at the age at age his unable to Cope with the demands of caring for placed him in group Homes with the help of the provincial family services in the Early they were asked to look at the but they refused to consider that so he continued to live in the then one night in september he ventured out of the House and into a Gas bar for a an altercation erupted and the police were the police called in the family services department they Laid it on the table that we had no that Derek was going to be put says Jean family services workers said Derek would go to the Manitoba developmental it really threw a fear into adds with the help of the Manitoba association for Community the family took the matter to court and challenged the Dale executive director of the it was obvious there had to be some checks and balances drawn into a process that ultimately could whisk away All control a person had Over his when the province had inhouse Legal counsel review the mental health act it was told it was Likely part of her life was ripped away by an ads knife by Catherine Mitchell staff reporter Joe Bryksa Winnipeg free press Kendell says checks on the system needed to be with Community the vulnerable persons act was drawn the act is being called revolutionary because its premise reverses the attitudes enshrined in its belief that Retar dates could not make decisions for themselves and needed their lives entirely managed by the not Only must a person be considered mentally but they must also be deemed need of says Tannis the family services assistant Deputy minister responsible for implementing the the vulnerable persons act sets out a process to review a persons if it is determined by a three person panel that help is someone close to the individual is if family or friends Arent the Public trustee can be appointed As substitute Mindell says the new Law is a first in Canada because of its Protection of the rights of the mentally handicapped and because it sets out a detailed system to help ensure that they Are cared for in accordance with their but the initial exhilaration of having the act passed has Long since waned and critics Are wondering Why the vulnerable persons act is not yet in calling the act comprehensive and nip family services critic Dou Martindale says the province should have acted by he says the province advertised and interviewed for a would manage the act and review All of the current supervision orders this no one has been hired Kendell says the association has been told the department is having some administrative problems in terms of getting their act it seems to be taking an inordinate amount of says Ive been concerned about the fact that political will might not be big chunks of Caroline Ferguson life Are How her Mother met her Why they didst her fathers but the biggest piece not there want erased by it was stolen by a doctors knife under a provincial psychiatrists on May the psychiatrist ordered that Ferguson be right after her unborn fetus was Ferguson was living at the Manitoba school for Retar dates now called the Manitoba developmental labelled a Moron defective with an in of 77 while under the order of the order effectively wiped away any control she had Over her any say in matters of health or she was 23 at the time of the they took my life my chances of being a says sitting in her neat i love this happened to me and it was against my i didst even know i was records she has with the help of the Manitoba association for Community indicate her 20yearold Mother was scottish Canadian and waited on tables in there is one line about her nationality was immediately after giving her Mother left for Caroline was placed after a year As a permanent Ward with the childrens Aid the papers record a string of Foster difficulties at placement at the Manitoba school for girls and women at she went to the Manitoba school for Ferguson ran repeatedly from the Portage la Prairie the bound in a file say the girl had sex with a Man for which she was paid a Small amount of she was taken to a Hospital for what she says she thought was an operation on her i was really sick they forced me to get out of bed right away As soon As i woke up and i bled like a Friendly nurse at the school told her what had Ferguson says she was allowed to leave the Centre april i was scared living in society very the first six years was they didst show me How to they didst show me ;