Runaways and the Residential School System

In 1967, Assistant Deputy Minister, R.F. Battle, admitted "It is not uncommon for Indian children to run away." Often, students who ran away did so as a response to physical, sexual, verbal, spiritual, and/or emotional abuse. Children not only ran away in ones and twos but sometimes en masse. On May 7, 1953, "all 32 boys in [a Saskatchewan school] were truant...following disciplinary action." If caught, the students were usually returned to their school, sometimes being held in jail until they were retrieved by a representative of the school. Some of those who were not caught and returned to the school made it to their homes. However, occasionally student runaways resulted in the deaths of children (four student deaths occurred in this manner during the decade of 1957-1967); drowning, freezing, and starvation were just some of the causes of death. Not every missing child or death was recorded by the schools, however, so the true numbers remain obscured due to the lack of documentation.

In 1971, the Department of Indian Affairs attempted to address student runaways with a policy that was supposed to find solutions that school, field staff, and community officials could search for runaways “more effectively.” This new policy included "residence staff to be alert during times of severe weather," "emphasizing the need for discussion of the problems of runaways," and the "implementation of a regular program of survival training for students." The policy focused on steps to take after the students had run away, while failing to address the reasons why students were willing to risk their lives to leave schools in the first place.