'My students should be here': Tumbler Ridge teacher shares toll of deadly B.C. school shooting
One of the teachers caught in the deadly school shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary has shared her story publicly for the first time, alongside a series of new lawsuits against OpenAI that allege the company should have warned Canadian officials about the shooter's ChatGPT activity.
Statement released along with series of new lawsuits against OpenAI from teachers, students and families
Andrew Kurjata · CBC News
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One of the teachers caught in the deadly school shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary has shared her story publicly for the first time, describing a "dark cloud" lingering over her hometown in the weeks and months following the tragedy.
Deidre Rushlow is one of the plaintiffs in a series of lawsuits filed this week in California against OpenAI, alleging the company's ChatGPT platform was used to help plan the shooting, which left eight victims, including five students and an educator at the school, dead.
Along with the lawsuit, Rushlow issued a written statement through the Canadian lawyers representing her in the case. In it, she says she is "haunted by the memory" of the day, calling it "a wound that sears with unending pain for my entire community."
Her letter is a rare insight into what people who were at Tumbler Ridge Secondary experienced, with the town's leaders asking for privacy as they recover from the tragedy.
"My name is Deidre Rushlow. Up until February 10, 2026, I was the English and Humanities teacher at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School. My students were in the library when the shooting happened. I did not know, nor could I know, that when I sent them to the library with my educational assistant, they were living their final moments," the statement begins.
Rushlow says she was in her first year of full-time teaching, having previously attended and graduated from the school before becoming a substitute.
"When I finally got the keys to my very own classroom last summer, I scrubbed each corner clean, added personal touches to brighten it up, and spent days organizing it until every last detail was perfect for my students," she writes.
"That same classroom has now been reduced to a pile of dust, all of my supplies and decorations packed into boxes and stored somewhere unknown to me. The career that once brought me such joy now terrifies me in ways I never imagined possible. How can I ever be responsible for another parent’s child again?"
WATCH | Remembering the victims of the Tumbler Ridge shooting:
RCMP identify all 8 victims of shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C.
February 12|
Duration 4:37
"My students should be here getting ready for the next school year," she says. "Instead, their families, friends and classmates are left behind to suffocate in limitless grief and trauma."
Investigation ongoing as new school year begins
As the school year begins, students at Tumbler Ridge Secondary will be back in portable classrooms that were set up in the wake of the shooting.
The school itself, which housed students from grades 7 to 12, is being demolished and replaced by a new facility funded by the provincial and federal governments.
The municipality is also working with those higher levels of government to develop a recovery plan and to continue offering supports to those who need it.
The police investigation into the deadly day is also ongoing, RCMP say, with a coroner's inquest planned once that is complete.
Unsealed documents reveal details of RCMP's response, investigation into Tumbler Ridge shooting
Tumbler Ridge school demolition 'new chapter' in recovery after shooting, residents say
'We will not forgive, we will not forget,' teacher says
Recent scrutiny has been centred on OpenAI after it was revealed that the shooter's ChatGPT account had been flagged internally, without warning Canadian officials or law enforcement.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has since apologized and says new policies are in place to offer better protections.
WATCH | New lawsuits filed against OpenAI:
Teachers, students file 30 new lawsuits against OpenAI over Tumbler Ridge shooting
5 hours ago|
Duration 4:13
But as part of the lawsuits filed this week though U.S. class-action firm Edelson PC, it is claimed OpenAI's leadership "ignored its own safety staff and refused to alert police," instead "choosing profit over the lives of the children of Tumbler Ridge" as it prepares to become a publicly-traded company."
Jason Kwon, chief strategy officer at OpenAI, said in a response posted on X that those claims are false and that his team works "hard to define standards and processes for when to report cases to law enforcement and to apply those standards to really difficult and complex situations."
The lawsuits and their claims will be tested in court in California, where OpenAI is headquartered.
In her statement, Rushlow writes she wants accountability for the company.
"We will not forgive, we will not forget, and we certainly will not rest until every last individual at OpenAI who was complicit in the Tumbler Ridge shooting has been brought to justice," she says.
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