Community feeling ‘profound’ loss after boy dies on school field trip at Alberta park

MEDICINE HAT – The mayor of a city in southeastern Alberta says the community is feeling a profound loss after an 11-year-old boy died of a suspected drowning during a field trip to a regional park.

Medicine Hat Mayor Linnsie Clark said all municipal pools and aquatic facilities are to be closed until further notice so staff and first responders can process what happened.

“We are ensuring that professional supports are available to all staff and first responders affected, and we are asking them to use those supports without hesitation,” Clark said in a statement Wednesday.

“In moments like this, strength is not found in standing alone. It is found in leaning on the people around you.”

Police have said they received a call Monday afternoon about a child missing during a school outing at Echo Dale Regional Park in Medicine Hat.

Officers, school officials and park staff searched the area and drones were used to look over the large lake in the park.

The boy was found in the water within an hour, and he was pronounced dead at the hospital.

“No words are adequate for a loss this profound,” Clark said. 

She said the city is grateful that staff and first responders were present at the park, but added that being exposed to such trauma comes at a personal cost.

“What they experienced was traumatic,” she said. “We also know that for first responders and emergency service workers, exposure to incidents involving children carries a particular weight.”

She said the city’s decision to close all municipal pools and aquatic facilities was not made lightly.

“We know these facilities matter to families and to summer programming across this city. But our first obligation is to the people who work in these spaces and to the community’s trust in us,” Clark said.

Clark said the city is working with the authorities and conducting an internal review.

Medicine Hat police said Wednesday that foul play is not suspected in the case. 

Staff Sgt. Darren Lole said police are working with the office of the chief medical examiner and are hoping to conclude the investigation in the next week.

“A lot of the witnesses to the event are also children, so we are taking a trauma-informed approach to that type of interview with those youngsters,” Lole said. 

Cody Edwards, acting superintendent for the Medicine Hat Public School Division, said it is providing additional supports such as counselling and family school liaison workers. 

“Our administrative command team has been enacted to provide support to staff and students navigate the many complexities of this tragedy,” Edwards said in a statement Tuesday. 

“This team is made up of professionals trained to help with the needs of students, families and school staff at difficult times such as this.”

Edwards called the boy’s death “an unimaginable tragedy that no family should experience.”

He said additional details will not be shared out of respect for the family and “those closest to this loss.”

“As a parent and as an educator, it’s hard to put something like this into words,” Edwards said. 

“This is a very difficult time for our school, and for our community.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 17, 2026.

— By Daniela Germano in Edmonton