SASKATOON — Charlene Klyne lost her sight after a deadly school shooting in northern Saskatchewan and still has shotgun pellets lodged in her jaw and chest.
Klyne was among seven people hurt in the shooting at the high school in La Loche in January. A teacher and a teacher's aide were fatally shot at the school and two brothers were also killed at a nearby home.
But it's been eight months and Klyne says more needs to be done to help the survivors.
"We were promised that we'd be getting help, all of us, and so far the little bit of help that we've been given, to me, is like being victimized every day over and over again," Klyne said from Saskatoon.
"It's just not fair."
Klyne says she's getting just $360 every two weeks from workers' compensation, which she says isn't enough to cover new living expenses and travel for treatment.
The government said in an email to media that the Workers' Compensation Board can't discuss any specific client's benefits.
The government also repeated measures it announced for La Loche in August for education, health, housing and infrastructure. Some initiatives include adult basic education programs, a trades program in heavy equipment, automotive mechanics and construction of affordable rental housing in a joint federal-provincial project.
Klyne and her husband, who was the vice-principal at the school, moved to La Loche in 2000. She would occasionally fill in as a teacher at the high school and was in a classroom when the shooting happened.
She remembers seeing the shooter through the window of her classroom door.
"I kept thinking to myself as the gun was being raised that I was going to be dead and all of a sudden everything was hurting and everything went red because the pellets went into my eyes. And (I) had a hard time with breathing because so there were many pellets in my neck," she recalled Wednesday.
"Then he was gone and it took me a few seconds to realize that, no, I wasn't dead."
Teacher's aide Marie Janvier was in the room too, and ran for help, but the shooter came back. Janvier was killed.
A teenage boy, who can't be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, is charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder.
Klyne was airlifted to Saskatoon for medical treatment. She lost all sight in her left eye and can only see shadows with the other.
The 56-year-old says the shooting has changed her life dramatically because now she can't go to the grocery store alone or cook because she can't tell the difference between a can of tuna and a can of cat food. She couldn't see to pick out birthday gifts for her two sons.
Klyne's husband had to take leave from work to care for her in Saskatoon, where she has multiple medical appointments every week.
She says other victims are facing tough financial times too, noting that the mother of one of the injured students had to leave work to care for her child.
"We need assistance. We need not to have to beg. We didn't ask for this to happen. Believe me, if I could have ran, I would have."
