A 15-year-old girl has been arrested for threats made to Howe Sound Secondary School Friday (April 11) and Tuesday (April 15). Although RCMP and school officials wouldn't reveal details regarding the messages, students reported they involved threats of shootings.Both incidents were determined to be of "minimal threat," and an RCMP behavioural science expert who viewed the messages agreed, said Cpl. Dave Ritchie. An investigation led to an arrest Tuesday. "The student was arrested without incident and is being investigated for uttering threats and public mischief," stated an RCMP news release Tuesday.The first threat discovered on a school wall Friday was determined to have been written at least two weeks previously. And principal Nancy Campbell said she suspects the second threat - discovered in the form of a letter on Tuesday - was a "copycat incident.""Whenever we deal with these things, our worry going into this was that there would be copycat things that happened, which is what happened, somebody taking advantage of perhaps getting a little attention," said Campbell. School staff and students went through "a lot of anxiety" following the threats, said Campbell. RCMP members were at the school all day Monday, and in and out on Tuesday "just to assuage any fears that people had.""Each time it happens, whether we deem it to be a copycat situation or not, we always go through the same process, and it's a very rigorous process of sitting down with the RCMP and going through the evidence and making that determination."The school's approach is little comfort to some parents, who are angry at what they perceive to be inadequate security measures. "I'm pulling my kids out indefinitely," said one parent, asking his name be withheld. "I've been saying for years this school should have goddamn metal detectors in there."The man's son, who also asked to remain anonymous, said he's seen knives, chains, brass knuckles and bats in the school. "Weapons - that's a big problem there right now," he said.Ritchie said the RCMP conducted a search of the school for weapons and found nothing. But police are limited by human rights legislation, and must have probable grounds to search lockers. "We have to respect their rights to privacy," he said.Campbell said she wasn't aware of any problems of that nature. "It's not something I have heard that a lot of our kids are carrying weapons. There are a lot of rumours around the community."Another student's parents are angry school staff did not inform parents of the incident until Monday afternoon when students were sent home with a letter signed by Campbell."Why do we have to hear from our children when we pick them up from school or when they arrive at home that their lives could very well have been in danger?" asked Rick Cutler and Nicole Edmunds in a letter to The Chief this week (read entire letter on page A15).Campbell's letter apprised parents of the situation and said staff and RCMP have developed "lockdown procedures for all schools in the event of an emergency." The students were asked to participate in a drill Tuesday that involved an announced "code red" on the school intercom. Once announced, lights are turned off, windows and doors shut and locked, and shades drawn. Students are told to turn off their cell phones and huddle in a corner of the room."During a lock situation it is imperative that parents not arrive at the school until they have been advised by the district that it is safe to do so," states the letter.Campbell said the reason for the delays in informing parents were partly logistical."Whenever you're dealing with something over the weekend you have the problem of making sure everyone hears the message. In terms of what we can do at the school - we do have a phone out system, but it takes us two days to go through all our students, so that wouldn't have been an option for us at that point. And we don't have at this point an effective email system with our parents, lots of our parents don't have email communication," said Campbell. The level of threat may also have impacted the urgency in informing parents. "I think what's important to understand is in our opinion and in the RCMP's opinion, this particular message was indeed a threat, but was a very minimal threat to the security of the school."
