Country schools, modern problems and the long haul to help kids

Slush pushes Sophie Wheeler's compact car back into the lane as she passes a snowplow during an early March snowstorm.

It's 7:30 in the morning as she pulls out of Medicine Hat toward Oyen, a 190-kilometre drive she makes three times a week, part of a new attempt to bring support to some of Alberta’s most remote schools.

That distance doesn't buffer the challenges students experience there — bullying, social-emotional issues, anxiety, depression, aggression, self-harm and even thoughts of suicide. These have been increasing since the pandemic.

"I think it's definitely a misconception that everything is easier [in rural areas for kids],” said Wheeler, leaning forward in the driver's seat, her eyes fixed on the road. 

"It's just the way that the schools cope with it is a little bit different." 

Teachers in schools across Alberta have been reporting increased complexity in their classrooms — more students who need more help to catch up, or who are struggling with interpersonal and other challenges since the pandemic.

The problems are no different in rural Alberta, but the solutions have to be.

In this case, it’s a roving team of experts, one of whom puts in 1,200 kilometres a week on the roads.

In southeastern Alberta, the Prairie Rose School Division stretches from the Montana border, 250 kilometres north to Oyen, with 18 town schools, plus 18 more on Hutterite colonies. It’s a land of farmers and cattle grazing leases and wind turbines, as close to Saskatoon as it is to Calgary.

The population is so sparse, the roughly 5,000 people who live within 100 kilometres of Oyen wouldn't fill the lower bowl of the Saddledome.

Officials with Prairie Rose started to notice an increase in complexity and aggressive behaviour from students five years ago, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Working for a school district in an isolated area, they knew community members would turn to them for help. There just isn’t much other support around.

"It's hard to access services — physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, mental health, physical therapists, occupational therapists," said Lisa Lindsay, the assistant superintendent of Prairie Rose. "And so we, the school, in those municipalities, we are everything to everybody."

The district increased the size of its wellness team to 10 positions two years ago and tried to hire a counsellor for Oyen who lived in the area. 

But without any qualified applicants, it redefined the position as a hybrid travelling counsellor, and Wheeler was hired last fall.