The grief-stricken mother of a 15-year-old student killed in a school shooting in Toronto's north end Wednesday says she keeps expecting her son to come home.

Jordan Manners, 15, was shot at a school in Toronto's north end.
(Facebook)

"He was my heart. I still keep thinking I'm going to look down there and he'll be coming, acting silly because that's the type of person he was," Laureen Small told CBC News outside her home.

Grade 9 student Jordan Manners was killed Wednesday by a gunshot wound to the chest inside C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute in the city's north end. He was found lying in a school hallway around 2:30 p.m. ET and later died in hospital.

"I just miss my son, miss my son, miss him dearly. I love my son," she said.

Small was stunned that the death took place in school, a place that she said should have been a safe haven.

"Why wasn't someone watching out for him? How could someone walk into a school with a gun and shoot my son?" she said.

These were questions she hasn't been able to pose to the school. She said one day after the shooting, school officials still had not contacted her.

Police implore killer to step forward

Toronto police said they have interviewed at least a dozen people in connection with the case and have extensively searched the school and nearby backyards.

Det. Sgt. Chris Buck said there were several students in the area of the shooting at the time it occurred and begged any witnesses or anyone with information to step forward. He said people who know who committed the crime are putting themselves in jeopardy if they don't contact police.

He would not say if police have a suspect, but he said police have received positive information that is helping them solve the case. Police have told CBC News an arrest may come soon.

Buck urged the killer to turn himself or herself in.

"I implore the person responsible for the shooting to step forward and take responsibility for what you've done," he said.

Teen a 'good kid'

Two Toronto filmmakers who grew up in the Jane and Finch neighbourhood — Mark Simms and Paul Nguyen — filmed Manners during a CBC documentary, Lost in the Struggle, that aired last fall. It was about three men growing up in the area. Jordan's story never made the final cut, but the two got to know Manners and his mother, Laureen Small.

'My neighbour's son is my son and my son is my neighbour's son. We all take care of each other.'—Jordan Manners's mother, Laureen Small

Jordan was "a good kid," Simms told CBC Newsworld in an interview Thursday. "A lot of values his mom had, Jordan had himself."

Simms met Manners at a York University gym when he noticed the teen and his friends regularly sneaking in to work out. Because it was summer and he knew the teens had little to do, he let them in and taught them workout drills.

Nguyen called Manners's mother a community leader who loves the neighbourhood "tremendously with all her heart" and is known for opening her door to troubled youth.

But Small refused such a title, saying she simply loves her neighbours. "My neighbour's son is my son and my son is my neighbour's son. We all take care of each other."

Shooting a 'catalyst' for change

A Toronto school board trustee is calling for a safety review of all the city's public schools in light of the tragedy.

About 850 students attend C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute in Toronto's north end.
(Kellie Hudson/CBC)

Toronto District School Board Trustee Stephanie Payne defended C.W. Jefferys as an "extremely safe" school with no history of violence.

"We have to look at all schools within the Toronto District School Board, not just the schools in the area of Jane and Finch, because this could happen in any school," said Payne, who lives in the area and has children attending the school.

Teachers took some time Thursday to discuss changes in security that they would like to see, such as locking school doors and using uniforms so outsiders could easily be identified.

"I think today is the catalyst for change at C.W. Jefferys," said Payne.

The high school was set to have security cameras installed within weeks, following in the footsteps of many schools in the area.

Grief counsellors on hand at school

On Thursday, yellow police tape surrounded the high school and much of the building remained closed. Classes were cancelled, but grief counsellors were on hand to talk with students in the cafeteria.

A police car sits outside C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute, which cancelled classes Thursday but had counsellors on hand to help the students cope after the fatal shooting.
(CBC)

By late morning, more than 100 of the school's 850 students had come to see the counsellors, though some said that they feared returning.

A prom scheduled for Friday evening was set to go ahead, and students planned to pause for a moment of silence.

Following the Wednesday shooting, students had been locked inside their classrooms for more than four hours while police searched for the shooter and the gun.

"It was real hectic inside the classroom, it was just commotion," said Vanessa Rejaram, a 15-year-old student.

Grade 10 student Anthony Schulz said that some students feared the gunman might be on a rampage in the school's corridors.

"We had a practice lockdown and it was for the Virginia Tech [shootings] so we were wondering if it was going to be something like that — someone imitating it," he said.

"I phoned my mom during class and my mom was crying — she couldn't believe that this was happening in our school."

Two dozen online tributes sprang up on the Facebook networking site overnight in memory of the teen, who had just turned 15 last week.

Politicians call for handgun ban

Ontario Community Safety Minister Monte Kwinter, whose Toronto riding is close to the school, said he is appealing to the federal Conservative government to crack down on handguns.

Parents wait outside C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute for their children to be released from the lockdown on Wednesday.
(Kellie Hudson/CBC)

He said he was disappointed the Harper government decided not to go ahead with a plan to ban handguns even though the previous Liberal government had agreed to one.

He also says more deterrents are needed to convince young offenders not to buy handguns that are often smuggled in from the U.S.

Seventy-three per cent of illegal guns entering Canada come from the U.S. and the rest are stolen from gun collectors, he said.

Toronto Mayor David Miller echoed demands for a handgun ban.

"Handguns exist to kill people. That's why they're made," he told CBC News Thursday morning, adding that if national governments fail to impose stricter controls, then cities will try.