Maya Gebala’s quiet bravery in the Tumbler Ridge school shooting

Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, was left reeling after the tragic school shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School on Tuesday, February 10, 2026. In the chaos of that morning, 12-year-old Maya Gebala became one of the many young lives forever marked by the violence that left five students and one teacher dead before the gunman, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, took his own life.

According to Maya’s aunt, Krysta Hunt, Maya was in the library with her Grade 7 classmates when the sound of the attack reached them. The children reacted as children often do in a crisis: they tried to protect one another, to make sense of the danger, to do the small urgent things that might keep everyone alive. They rushed to lock the library door, only to discover that the lock was broken.

In those terrifying seconds, one classmate ran to hide while Maya stayed behind just a little longer, still trying to secure the door. It was a small act, but one that speaks volumes about her instinct to help, to hold the line for others even as fear closed in. When she realized it would not work, she ran for cover and hid under a table with the others.

Maya was shot while hiding. The injuries were severe: she was hit above her left eye and in her neck, and also suffered grazing wounds to her cheek and ear. In the aftermath, her classmates noticed that one of her fingers was still moving. They carried her out of the library themselves, moving quickly to get her the medical help she needed as fast as possible.

She was rushed to BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, where doctors performed surgery to address a brain bleed. She was then placed in a medically induced coma and remained in extremely critical condition. For her family, every update carried the weight of fear and hope at once, the kind of fragile balance only loved ones in a hospital waiting room can understand.

In the days that followed, Maya’s mother shared encouraging news, saying Maya had begun showing signs of improvement. In a story defined by loss and shock, that small sign of progress offered her family and friends a reason to keep believing. And amid the sorrow surrounding the shooting, Maya’s courage and the care of the classmates who carried her out have become a reminder of how fiercely people can try to protect one another when everything else has fallen apart.