B.C. school thanks staff and pupils after grizzly attack, vowing support for victims

By Canadian Press on November 21, 2025.

BELLA COOLA — A British Columbia school whose pupils and staff were injured when a grizzly bear attacked an elementary class is thanking them for their courage and resilience.

The Nuxalk Nation’s academy in Bella Coola on the central coast says in an online statement that it will continue to support any students or staff injured in Thursday’s bear attack, as well as those who witnessed it and were traumatized.

Two people were critically injured, two were seriously hurt, and seven others were treated for their injuries within the community.

Veronica Schooner, the mother of a 10-year-old pupil, says his class of Grade 4 and 5 students was on a walk when the bear attacked in the community about 700 kilometres northwest of Vancouver.

The Nuxalk Nation says the “aggressive bear” involved in the attack remained on the loose as of Thursday night.

Schooner says a male adult was among the most seriously injured, along with three children.