It’s been more than a year since four Walkerton high school softball players and their coach were taken in a tragic crash near London. Coach and teacher Mat Eckert was driving the SUV carrying Olivia Rourke, Rowan McLeod, Danica Baker, and Kaydance Ford when it collided with a transport truck on May 23, 2025. While she holds no blame towards Coach Eckert, Kaydance Ford’s mother believes the practice of teachers or coaches driving students to off-site sports, or school sanctioned activities should no longer be happening. “A lot of the time there’s teachers and coaches who are driving students and that should not be the norm. It shouldn’t be common. I don’t know why it was ever made a thing because it’s not in their job description. They should not be responsible to transfer students to a school sanctioned event. That never should have been a thing,” said Jessica Ford, Kaydance Ford’s mother. Jessica has submitted a 14 point Student Grief and Traumatic Loss Reform Proposal to the Bluewater District School Board. At it’s core, she’s calling for a school sanctioned school bus or coach bus to be the main source of transportation for students to off-site activities. “I want to see not necessarily a bus for every single school sanctioned event, but for most of them, if it makes sense to fund a bus then fund a bus. If there’s no funding then ask parents if they can pay for the bus. We used to do that all the time when I was young, so there’s really no reason why we can’t do it again,” she said. Jessica is also calling for a more standardized framework for death and traumatic loss through the school board, including long term student grief counselling, and a bereaved family liaison to help families navigate help and support during their darkest days. “Yes, the initial tragedy needs fast support, but not just after that first week or first month. It needs to be ongoing. And it can’t be that the student has to be responsible for reaching out to ask for that. We shouldn’t have to ask for grief support when we’re grieving,” she said. She wants better communication for the next family that faces a tragedy like theirs. As an example, she says her family wasn’t informed the school was making “memorial tables” for the crash victims until they were already in place. “Because we didn’t learn about the memorial tables until later, we very well could have been the only family that their daughter’s table didn’t have personal things. And that hurt us, but it also would have ended up hurting her friends, and other students and staff,” she said. The Bluewater District School Board says they are looking over Jessica’s reforms. While they are proud of their response in the wake of the crash tragedy, they acknowledge more could possibly be done in the future. “The Walkerton tragedy provided us with a lot of firsthand learning for our teams to reflect upon and consider in reshaping future practices. Some of this learning is already in the process of being embedded into revised protocols around tragedy response and communication. These are living documents that will continue to be refined through our direct experiences in managing situations involving tragedy,” said the Bluewater District School Board in a statement. As far as student transportation to off-site activities goes, the school board says they too want school bus transportation for all students but that’s not always possible. “Efforts are made to secure bus transportation for trips and excursions where possible. However, there are limitations and unique circumstances that must be considered and applying this approach consistently to all trips across more than 40 school locations presents some challenges. We will continue to review all options available to us while prioritizing the safety of our students and staff,” said a Bluewater District School Board statement. Jessica has met with school board officials regarding her proposed changes to trauma response, and off-site school transportation. “I really hoped that we would learn from our tragedy. We can’t change what happened to our family, but we can advocate for changes to happen before something else happens to another family because we don’t live in a perfect world. This wasn’t the first tragedy, and it won’t be the last. So we need to learn from it. And we really need to look at how we transport our children. I don’t want to see another family go through the added trauma or the added stress that we have. And I in a perfect world, it wouldn’t happen again. But in reality, we live in an imperfect world. So I want to see something in place that can prevent as much of this as possible,” said Jessica. To learn more about Jessica’s Student Grief and Traumatic Loss Reform Proposal, you can visit the Kaydance Ford Athletic and Trades Foundation website. The full response to Ford’s proposal, from the Bluewater District School Board. “Bluewater District School Board has received the proposal and is reviewing its recommendations with staff in the applicable portfolios. When it comes to critical incidents affecting our schools, we are continually learning, refining our practices, and looking for meaningful ways to strengthen our existing supports and communication practices. The tragedy impacting Walkerton District Community School in May 2025 was significant. Our school and system-level staff closely followed our established tragedy response and crisis communications processes that have guided us through many previous school-based incidents. This included consulting and working closely with other experts outside of our organization, such as the Center for Trauma Informed Practices (CTIP) and Victim Services. We also recognize that no two situations are the same, and the Walkerton tragedy provided us with a lot of firsthand learning for our teams to reflect upon and consider in reshaping future practices. Some of this learning is already in the process of being embedded into revised protocols around tragedy response and communication. These are living documents that will continue to be refined through our direct experiences in managing situations involving tragedy. While our primary focus has been to support the students and staff of a school when they experience a traumatic event, we are exploring ways to better support directly impacted families in our approach, which is one of the key areas outlined in the proposal. Regarding student transportation for trips and events, we follow board policy BP 5602-D Field Trips and Excursions and its accompanying procedure AP 5602-D Field Trips and Excursions – Approval Process. As outlined in the procedure, it is currently a requirement that any volunteer drivers who are transporting students must first obtain appropriate formal authorization. Our broader transportation policy, BP 6501-D Transportation, indicates the intent to provide transportation (i.e., busing) for school-sponsored educational, sports, and general-interest programs, within the limits established by the annual budget. In accordance with the policy, efforts are made to secure bus transportation for trips and excursions, where possible. However, there are limitations and unique circumstances that must be considered and applying this approach consistently to all trips across more than 40 school locations presents some challenges. We will continue to review all options available to us while prioritizing the safety of our students and staff.”
