215 children died in 79 years, about 3 a year, not a high number considering the illnesses of the times and the lack of modern medical intervention we have today. What was the capacity of the school in numbers of kids over the years. I know in one year that I went to school 5 students out of just over 100 students died in our small town, no it wasn't a residential school it was a regular elementary school about 1970. Student population at Kamloops residential school peaked in the 1950's at about 500 students per year.
They say there are no records, there may have been records, were they lost, destroyed, who knows, how many institutions have records intact from the period of 52 years ago to 132 years ago.
They say none of the families were notified, how do we know that. They very well could have been notified and had memorial services etc. We'll never know. Back then it wasn't uncommon for people of any race to have family members who died away from home buried where they died, the logistics of transporting bodies was more complicated back in those times especially to remote native communities in those days..
