A funeral for Toronto teacher and “role model” AbshirHassan, fatally shot in the Lawrence Heights neighbourhood Tuesday, will be held today in Etobicoke.
The 31-year-old part-time teacher at Lawrence Heights Middle School was shot Tuesday at around 12:15 a.m. when police say a car pulled up outside the Flemington Road apartment building and fired several rounds.
Hassan had just gone outside to move his car in order to not get a ticket, according to police.
A 22-year-old man and 18-year-old woman were also shot at close range and were seriously injured.
Police are still searching for suspects and say the shooting was not targeted but was a random act.
Since his death Hassan, a master’s student at York University who had grown up in the neighbourhood and had returned to teach, has been hailed as a positive role model, volunteer and trusted friend.
“Abshir was a role model, he was a leader, he was a great guy and they loved him. He was always available. His heart was full of passion, of how to support youth and children in an at risk community,” said Abdi Mohamed, a community activist of Somali descent.
The Somali community is now saying that the school is not doing enough to find places for leaders like Hassan — born of Somali parents and raised in the “priority” neighbourhood Lawrence Heights.
Haweiya Egeh knew Hassan from the Toronto District School Board Somali task force, which works on reversing the high dropout rate among Somali youth.
“The sky was the limit for him… he could have been a superintendent or trustee one day,” Egeh said.
Hassan had finished teacher’s college and like many others was having a hard time finding a permanent placement while teaching jobs are scarce.
Mohamed Ahmed went to school with Hassan and said both had trouble finding a job after graduating so Hassam convinced his friend to also enrol in the master’s program at York —- a program they’d be graduating from together soon.
“We took every single course together throughout the two years, we were supposed to finish in the next month and a half,” Ahmed said.
They two also volunteered at Success Beyond Limits — an at-risk students' program in the Jane-Finch neighbourhood.
Ahmed said Hassan would keep him from getting too discouraged despite the difficult job prospects.
His positive attitude was also echoed by a teacher of Hassan’s on Wednesday night as people gathered at the school where he worked to mourn.
“I call him my shining star, very curious intellectually,” said Nombuso Dlamini. “He just did not listen to negativity.”
Colleague SaadaAwaleh also recalled how Hassan would stay positive and motivate others; he had encouraged her to volunteer in those after school outreach programs before she became a teacher.
“The students, they were just in love with him.. with his personality,” she said.
Lawrence Heights Middle School principal David deBelle has said that Hassan “represented all that’s good about people, all that’s good about this city,”
A scholarship in his name is being set up by community leaders and Success Beyond Limits.