It is with the utmost sadness that I inform you of the sudden passing over the weekend of Paul Aikins, our long-time music theatre teacher at ESA. As a community, as a staff, we are grief-stricken by this news. On behalf of our ESA staff and community, I would like to extend our most sincere sympathies to Paul’s family, his partner Fred Bergman, his mother and his many siblings, nieces and nephews. Also, we offer our deepest condolences to his many dear friends who are assuredly experiencing a deep sense of loss. Paul’s impact at ESA, our music theatre program, and its many students was enormous. This loss to our community hurts deeply and it will for sometime. Now more than ever, we will need to lean on each other, and count on the kindness of our loving community to help us through. To support each other as a school, we are first meeting with ESA staff in the library between 8:15 and 8:30 am Monday morning. The library and guidance office will be open for the remainder of the school day for students to seek social work and guidance counsellor support. The TDSB Crisis Response Team, comprised of school-based social workers, will be in the school tomorrow and throughout the week to support students and staff. We have made every attempt to reach our staff in person to inform them of this tragic news and we are now reaching out to our greater community to keep them as informed as we can. In the coming days and weeks, we will be discussing and planning ways in which we can honour Paul’s legacy and the many relationships that he built. In the short-term, we will be supporting each other, the students and their families to deal with this loss. We will miss you Paul. Fred, and family, we are here for you.
Sincerely,
Grant Fawthrop
Principal