Mass shooting focuses spotlight on school safety plans in Manitoba

The deadly mass shooting in a B.C. community has prompted discussions in Manitoba about school safety, active shooter protocols and how to speak to children about the tragedy.

Education Minister Tracy Schmidt said every school in Manitoba is required by law to have a safety plan that includes lockdown procedures and practice drills for students and staff.

“Speaking to students here in Manitoba directly, I just want to remind them that schools are a safe place, full of teachers and grown-ups that are committed to keeping you safe,” she told the Free Press.

A secondary school teacher and five students were among eight people killed in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., on Tuesday, RCMP said. The suspected shooter, a former student, died of a self-inflicted injury.

“Incidents like this provide us with the opportunity to take a close look at exactly what we’re doing and learn every single lesson that we can,” Schmidt said.

Manitoba schools’ safety plans require annual reviews by school committees.

Schmidt directed all school divisions to review and submit their access and security policies to the government in December, after a registered sex offender entered a St. Vital elementary school and grabbed a child in a washroom.

The province set aside $500,000 for safety assessments and, where necessary, safety upgrades in schools. The government wants all schools to have controlled entrances.

Schmidt, the NDP MLA for Rossmere in northeast Winnipeg, was in touch with B.C. Education Minister Lisa Beare after the shooting in Tumbler Ridge.

“As a parent, as a mom, certainly I was horrified and shocked,” Schmidt said about the incident. “This is a hard day for all Canadians. Our hearts and minds are with the people of Tumbler Ridge, and speaking to Manitobans, hold your kids a little bit closer tonight.”

Tony Kreml, superintendent of the Seven Oaks School Division, said crisis response plans are in place in each of its schools.

“They are reviewed with staff, with the intent that we are responding meaningfully and safely to emergent situations that can happen within our schools,” he said.

Kreml said staff aim to create “safe spaces” in schools in case students want to discuss or ask questions about incidents such as the shooting in B.C.

“Our teachers continue to work hard to ensure that students and families know that their schools in Seven Oaks are safe spaces, also in all divisions within Manitoba,” he said.

“On behalf of Seven Oaks School Division and the staff here, certainly our thoughts go out to the community of Tumbler Ridge as they grapple with this senseless tragedy.”

At least one Manitoba school division emailed parents and guardians Wednesday to acknowledge the potential emotional effect on children, and to assure them safety and response protocols are in place.

“In the days following incidents like this, it is common for students to experience increased anxiety, ask questions about safety, seek reassurance, or talk about what they are seeing online,” Shelley Amos, superintendent and CEO of Pembina Trails School Division in southwest Winnipeg, wrote in an email.

“Some students may appear unaffected, while others may feel unsettled. All of these responses are normal.”

Amos said schools are ready to help students and families, if needed.

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Shootings at schools in Manitoba are incredibly rare. A 16-year-old boy was fatally shot by a fellow student at Winnipeg’s Sturgeon Creek Regional Secondary School in 1978.

Police occasionally respond to threats. St. John’s High School in Winnipeg’s North End was closed as a precaution Monday after a threat was posted online.

City police spokesman Const. Claude Chancy said the major crimes unit spoke to a youth believed to be responsible for the threat.

“It was determined there was no threat to public safety and after speaking with the youth, it was decided no charges would be laid,” Chancy wrote in an email.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Chris Kitching
Reporter

Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris.

Every piece of reporting Chris produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.