Mike on Crime

By Mike McIntyre
Winnipeg Free Press

She claims concerns about a troubled student were ig­nored in the weeks proceeding a grisly slaying. Now a Winnipeg school caretaker says she’s being shut out of work for publicly blowing the whistle.

Tracy Rose believes officials with the Pembina Trails School Division are punishing her for speaking out about her experience with a 17-year-old boy now accused of kill­ing his father, dismembering the body and hiding the re­mains.

“I can’t believe they are doing this. Schools always talk about the need to protect our children, but they seem to be the biggest bullies,” Rose told the Free Press this week.

She recently filed a formal complaint with the school division, believing the tragic killing could have been pre­vented had she been taken seriously. School officials have confirmed an internal investigation is ongoing.

Rose, who was a casual employee but says she would regularly get close to full-time hours, claims a supervisor has now told her there is no longer any work for her.

“He said, ‘I told you there was a chance you’d lose your job over this.’ I can’t believe it. I did what I had to do be­cause I needed some closure. Everything was fine when I was placing nicey-nice. Now they’re going to continue step­ping on the little guy,” said Rose.

She has spoken with the provincial labour board but says they can’t help her because of her casual status. She has also talked to a lawyer and is debating legal action against the division.

“The question is do I want to put my family in debt to prove a point here?” she said.

“At the very least, I think the next people coming up who want to blow the whistle on something may want to think twice, knowing their liveli­hood could be affected.”

Lawrence Lussier, the superintendent of Pembina Trails, refused to discuss spe­cifics of Rose’s employment status.

“I can’t comment on rela­tionships between employers and employees. It may be be­cause we just don’t have any work for her, or it could be for other reasons,” he said this week.

The 17-year-old accused killer, who can’t be named because of provisions in the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was arrested earlier this summer after family members and police learned the teen’s 49-year-old father had been killed weeks earlier. An investigation revealed the victim was beaten with a hammer and stabbed to death inside his Charleswood home on June 25. The teen has been charged with second-degree murder.

The accused allegedly lived in the home with his father’s body for several days while phone calls poured in from the man’s employer and concerned family members. That’s when the teen allegedly moved the corpse.

Justice sources say the victim was beheaded and dis­membered, then placed in several garbage bags. The re­mains were apparently driven more than two hours north of Winnipeg and placed in dense forest, underneath sev­eral large rocks.

Rose worked for three straight months at the boy’s high school last spring and says he started hanging around the school after-hours, often conversing with her and two co­workers.

Rose said she went to the school vice-principal in May after the teen made a series of comments that alarmed all three custodians and suggested to them that he may have a propensity to violence.

Rose claimed the vice-principal brushed off her con­cerns. She wasn’t happy with the vice-principal’s response and said she spoke to the school guidance counsellor, who said he would look into her concerns. Rose doesn’t believe anything was done.

Weeks later, she returned from a trip to British Columbia to find a voicemail message from Winnipeg police homi­cide investigators, wanting to discuss her previous contact with the boy.