Port Alberni teacher Mike Roberts has received a B.C. RCMP Commanding Officer's Commendation for his role in transporting students from two fatal incidents in 2018 and 2019.
Port Alberni RCMP Inspector Kim Bruce, Const. Jamie Wasylien, Cpl. Jordan Hamlyn, Cpl. Aaron Aasen and Roberts' family interrupted his Leadership 12 class on Sept. 13, 2024, surprising Roberts and his students.
"The mantle of leadership is not always obvious," Bruce said to the students. "It's not always about the teacher in the room, it's not always about the coach leading a team...Sometimes it's about those selfless actions you do in the middle of the night, picking up a phone, stepping up to serve others when they need you most."
The Commanding Officer's Commendation states Roberts "is officially commended for outstanding service in supporting the investigation of two separate fatal motor vehicle (incidents) near Port Alberni."
Former Port Alberni RCMP youth liaison officer Const. Jamie Wasylien nominated Roberts for the award, and returned to Port Alberni to help present it. "He went above and beyond answering the call," Wasylien said.
"We had no one else to call for the amount of people we needed at both scenes. One was the bus crash (on the Bamfield Road) and another was after a student fatality (on Stirling Arm Road). I asked him to bring a bus and there was no hesitation."
As athletic director for Alberni District Secondary School, Roberts had access to passenger vans in 2018 and 2019 that athletic teams used for transportation. Wasylien said in the case of the Stirling Arm fatality he was called in the middle of the night to respond because his job at the time was working with youth. He in turn called Roberts because there was a campsite filled with youth who witnessed the scene.
When a bus transporting students from University of Victoria to Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre rolled off the road in September 2019, two students were killed, 17 were taken to hospital with injuries and 30 more needed transportation from the crash site. Roberts received the call at midnight for help. He and Dave Maher, an administrator at Eighth Avenue Learning Centre, spent several hours ferrying people to an emergency reception centre in Port Alberni.
"He answered the call without hesitation and helped me get kids out of the way and back to their families," Wasylien said.
Roberts was humble as he accepted the award. "If I could be completely honest, if any one of the adults in the room were given the same opportunity to help...I think they would. It just happened to be me.
"In life sometimes you've got to do things without asking a lot of questions. I just went because a friend needed me."
