Turning Your Back in a Classroom

"Physically I'd say I'm pretty much back to normal. The only difference is that, because they cut my sternum open, I have metal wiring they put in to hold it together while it was healing. That's still in there."

"So there are a few spots that are still sensitive. There's a spot in particular where I can feel the metal. It hasn't happened yet, but I know it's going to hook on to something and it's going to hurt."

"When I drive the car, the seatbelt rubs on it sometimes. I wouldn't say it's super painful, but it's annoying."

"There was a point in the ambulance where I was like: 'Well, I don't want to die, but if I'm going to die I have to accept it, I guess'. I did accept it at that point, but thankfully that didn't happen."

"It's the one environment [a school] where you don't expect something like this and it's the place where I was almost murdered. It's just surreal and jarring. Now I have to consider that a teenager could possibly attack me and kill me and not for any rational reason."

"I've been seeing mental health specialists and psychiatrists every once in a while. Hopefully some of this can get sorted out and back to normal -- hopefully sooner than later."

"We'll see. I haven't been depressed and I'm fairly optimistic. Out of all of these horrible things that happened to me, ultimately I'm alive and I'm happy to be alive."

"It was kind of like this weird moment where I could almost see the words, or hear the words, 'if you panic, you die'."

"I took safety lessons when I was a kid until I was 12 or 13, and all the safety techniques, like how to resuscitate people."

"I hadn’t thought about that in years, but at that moment, everything I knew about that came into play. I knew I had to compress my shoulder, and I knew I had to slow my breathing and slow my heart rate."

Maxime Canuel, visual arts teacher, John F. Kennedy High School, Montreal

Maxime Canuel, an art teacher at John F. Kennedy High School in Montreal, was stabbed by a student on Dec. 9, 2021. (Submitted photo)

When a student at a school in a suburb of Montreal approached the visual arts teacher during a break between classes, other students were present in the classroom, reporting afterward that they witnessed the attacker entering the room, while teacher Canuel's back was turned. They saw the student twice stab the teacher and then run out of the room. The teacher had been stabbed in the shoulder and then in his heart. 

He was so taken by surprise, he was initially unable to comprehend what had happened. What he had felt was that someone had hit him in the shoulder. He was unaware that he had been stabbed; stabbed twice, the second time in his chest. He felt nothing. Nothing in his experience at the school might have led him to think such a thing might ever happen. 

Maxime Canuel, seen here at his home in Montreal on Friday, Nov. 11, 2022, got a new tattoo after he recovered from being stabbed in the heart by a student while teaching class at John F. Kennedy High School last December. Photo by John Mahoney /Montreal Gazette

Maxime Canuel was rushed to hospital to undergo emergency surgery. It was only when paramedics arrived and cut his shirt away that he realized his condition; he saw blood "bubble and pour out" of his chest. He is now, a year later -- the length of time it has taken him to recover from the injuries done him --  reminded at times by the extreme discomfort and soreness he experiences when he sleeps the wrong way on his arm. 

 

The metal wiring he describes akin to a twist tie, is permanent. His sternum will host that tie for as long as he lives."It felt like someone was punching me in the ribs", for the first month of recovery, whenever he took in a breath. He would often wake at night from the pain. Finally, his recovery therapy came complete with months of breathing exercises. Last week at the Montreal youth courthouse, the teacher of the 17-year-old youth who pleaded guilty to attempted murder, described his recovery process.

The sentencing for the youth amounted to two years at an institution for minors. According to the lawyer for the attacker, it was autism that was responsible in large part for the sentencing. In addressing the court, Mr. Canuel said the stabbing was the first time "that I had to consider my death". The psychological trauma he experienced has led to his inability to return to the school to resume his teaching career. A career of 15 years' duration to that point.

And nor does he believe that autism had anything to do with what had occurred. Before the  youth was sentenced there were other factors mentioned. Teacher Canuel was later informed he might be the only teacher at the school who had never sent this teen to the principal's office or filled out an incident report on him. He did find he had to watch the youth in class. And on the one occasion when his back was turned, that is when he was almost killed.

"People have asked me if I think [the sentence] is enough. First of all, it's not up to me to decide that. But I don't know any outcome that would be satisfying after [being stabbed in the heart]. I'm super thankful to be alive, so there is that."

"I've taught autistic children my whole career. I've never heard of another situation where an autistic student tried to murder someone."

"Personally, I don't think that explains [the stabbing]."

Montreal police deployed a large number of officers to the scene following the stabbing of an art teacher at John F. Kennedy High School last December. (Simon-Marc Charron/Radio-Canada)