Police on standby at city high school after date-specific threat issued

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This article was published 23/10/2023 (1064 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A threatening message left in a washroom at Sturgeon Heights Collegiate is the latest example of worrying behaviour that has become more common in city schools, especially since students and staff returned after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Principal George Valentim let families of students know about temporary safety measures that were implemented Monday in an email sent last week.

“A message was written in one of the washrooms regarding October 23,” Valentim said in the vague memo about an unnamed “threat to the school.”

“In adherence with divisional protocol, a plan was put in place to address the safety of the school community.”

In response, city police and school clinicians were on standby in the school Monday.

Students were asked to arrive with only “essential belongings.” They were required to enter via one set of doors, stay on-site during lunch and sign out with a staff member if they needed to leave at any point. Extracurricular activities on school grounds were cancelled.

Winnipeg Police Service spokeswoman Const. Dani McKinnon said officers have been in regular communication with administration over the matter.

McKinnon did not elaborate on the nature of the threat. She cited concerns about protecting youth privacy and the ongoing status of the investigation.

“We would like to reassure our community that the threat did not identify any specific groups,” superintendent Jenness Moffatt said in a statement.

St. James-Assiniboia School Division staffers have experience reacting to concerning behaviours since establishing a formal crisis response protocol about 18 years ago, said Potoula Locken, director of inclusion support services and accessibility.

“(School leaders) deal with situations all the time — whether it’s a disgruntled child or community member who has concerns out in the community and brings it to schools….Unfortunately, it’s becoming more common than not,” she said.

Locken noted the World Health Organization continues to warn about an increase in mental-health and anxiety-related issues across the population, which predate the pandemic, but have become exponentially worse and widespread in its wake.

SJASD did not release data on concerning student behaviour incidents resulting in clinical assessment.

Midway through the 2022-23 school year, Winnipeg’s Louis Riel School Division revealed such events — which include verbal or written threats — had spiked 263 per cent compared to all of 2019-20.

Dr. Maria Phelps, a St. James-Assiniboia school psychologist, echoed concerns about the toll COVID-19 has taken on classroom communities. She said the division is committed to educating community members on coping skills and resilience.

Free SJASD informational sessions, including a virtual presentation that equips parents with strategies to support youth experiencing anxiety, have surged in popularity, with roughly 300 per cent more attendees now than when these events were held in-person pre-pandemic.

When a serious incident of any kind occurs in the division, a school-based committee is in charge of assessing risk and violence, and responding to it. The committees are generally made up of representatives from administration, student services (resource teachers and guidance counsellors), clinician rosters and classroom educator teams.

The division also employs school resources as part of the local police-in-schools program to weigh in on issues such as the one that unfolded at Sturgeon Heights over the last week.

SJASD committees debrief after any crisis to determine how their immediate safety plan went and which students might need additional support, Phelps said.

“Some people, out of an abundance of caution, keep their children home, but then they come back the next day and… we really want to fast-track a return to pre-threat conditions. We want to give these kids the coping skills they need to come back into the school and get back into the swing of things,” she said.

“Everyone focuses on the threat, but it really is the assessment and intervention piece put in (that matters most).”

— with files from Erik Pindera

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca