The Canadian flag at half-mast at the legislature in Victoria on Wednesday in honour of the victims of the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C.CHAD HIPOLITO/The Canadian Press

It is impossible to comprehend what happened in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., on Tuesday. Even with some information confirmed, an inability to grasp what has transpired remains. Nine people dead, most of them children, most of them found in the high school library.

It is impossible to stomach, to contemplate, to understand. It should be impossible.

Amid the horrors, we can take a moment to be grateful for the help of so many people, who generally labour without much recognition – the opposite, in fact.

Thank you.

To the teachers at Tumbler Ridge Secondary and Elementary schools, who kept their students as safe as they could, who let them know they were cared for and loved. Who barricaded doorways or came up with escape plans, and tried to keep their vulnerable charges calm, even as horrific images from elsewhere in the school arrived via their cellphones.

‘It’s just horrible’: Tumbler Ridge reeling after deadly school shooting

To the students who looked after their classmates, especially their juniors like 12-year-old Quinn Campbell, who told The Globe and Mail “they were mostly trying to cheer........

© The Globe and Mail