Real or not, school threats taken seriously: police

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This article was published 18/01/2019 (2633 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new set of social media threats against Winnipeg schools this week are not any more credible than the first, police say.

However, authorities will continue the investigation, and the nature of the threats won’t make much difference to the charges that will ultimately be laid once the person who sent them is located, media were told Friday.

“This causes a lot of disruption, it causes fear in the community and all of those are reasonable responses. We’re going to find out who did it, and we’re going to charge them, and they’re going to face whatever legal consequences are appropriate based on the level of the threats,” Winnipeg Police Service Const. Rob Carver said.

“The fact that the threat isn’t credible doesn’t really alter the charges.”

Winnipeg police said they learned of the social media threats Thursday night concerning Arthur Day Middle School and John W. Gunn Middle School in the River East Transcona School Division, and École Van Belleghem, an elementary school in the Louis Riel School Division.

River East Transcona posted a notice on its Facebook page stating classes would go ahead as usual Friday after assessing the threat level in talks with police. Letters about the threats and the responses were again sent home to parents.

“At both Arthur Day and John W. Gunn… students were brought into the school immediately upon arrival, where we performed a visual inspection of backpacks and bags.

Classes are continuing (Friday) with all exterior doors locked and a strong staff presence throughout the schools. Police and our divisional support teams are also at the schools supporting our students and staff,” a divisional spokesperson said.

Earlier in the week, police charged a 14-year-old girl who lives near Arthur Day with uttering threats against the grades 6 to 8 school.

Police said the messages warned firearms would be used to shoot people at the school.

Officials determined the threats were not credible and the girl charged had no access to firearms, police said.

Until police reached that conclusion, however, the school was lin a hold-and-secure mode Monday, and exterior doors to the school were kept locked Tuesday.

The presence of police at the three schools Friday was an effort to provide a visible presence that would reassure students, parents and staff, Carver said.

“If the threats were assessed as credible, our response would be a little different,” he said. “The schools would be in hold-and-secure, or locked down or evacuated — all of those would be options.”

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca