{"id":12482,"date":"2019-09-26T11:49:54","date_gmt":"2019-09-26T14:49:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=12482"},"modified":"2019-09-26T11:49:54","modified_gmt":"2019-09-26T14:49:54","slug":"regional-centre-rcmp-explain-protocol-when-it-comes-to-threats-at-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=12482","title":{"rendered":"Regional centre, RCMP explain protocol when it comes to threats at schools"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After rumour left parents worried, The Laker asked HRCE and police about process<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

FAL<\/strong>L RIVER: <\/strong>The Halifax Regional \nCentre for Education (HRCE) and Halifax District RCMP take threats \ntowards the safety of staff and students seriously, the two say in \nresponses to questions about a recent rumoured threat at Lockview High \nSchool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After being contacted by several parents about a rumour of\n a school shooting to take place Sept. 23 at the Fall River school\u2014a \nrumour that was proven to not be credible\u2014The Laker<\/em> contacted \nHRCE and RCMP to find out their processes for investigating such a \nthreat and communicating that to parents\/guardians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the parents who had contacted The Laker <\/em>had\n not heard anything from the school before sending their children to \nschool. Some kept their kids home as a precaution. The school issued a \nletter about mid-morning Sept. 23.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doug Hadley, spokesman with HRCE, said any potential threat to the health and safety of students and staff is taken seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen\n a situation occurs, the school principal conducts a \u201cthreat-risk \nassessment\u201d where they assess the seriousness of a threat and take \nappropriate action,\u201d said Hadley. \u201cA threat-risk assessment often \ninvolves gathering information from a number of sources such as a \nvice-principal, guidance counsellor, students, police, HRCE staff, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said there are many factors that are considered when determining a course of action.He explained what took place on Sept. 23.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter\n conducting the threat-risk assessment, which included contacting RCMP, \nit was determined that there was no credible threat to the health and \nsafety of students at Lockview and it did not warrant any alteration to \nthe daily routine on Monday,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lisa Croteau, Halifax \nDistrict RCMP spokeswoman, explained RCMP investigate all calls \ninvolving threats to a school, including when the information is \nreceived through a third party or via social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe \npriorities are to determine public safety risk, to interrupt and disrupt\n any threat plan from proceeding, and to identify and locate the source \nof the threat,\u201d said Croteau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said when a threat is received, \npolice would advise a representative of the school that they are \ninvestigating a potential threat pertaining to their school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe \nwill continue to work with the school administration to further the \ninvestigation,\u201d she said. \u201cA connection with the school is maintained \nthroughout the investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Croteau was asked what does the \nRCMP do in the case that either a threat is deemed a joke or not \ncredible and when it is a real possible situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe RCMP \ntreats each threat complaint as being credible and responds accordingly \nuntil the investigation determines otherwise,\u201d she said. \u201cIf the \ninvestigation reveals a real situation then the person responsible, if \nknown, will be arrested and charges may follow. If the threat is proven \nfalse, then the person(s) involved will be educated regarding the \nconsequences and potential impacts of their actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe School Safety Resource Officers will be involved in these investigations and conduct follow-up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She\n added that the RCMP wanted Nova Scotians to be aware there could be \nserious criminal consequences to making a threat to a school and \ninvestigating complaints where a false threat was made ties up police \nand school resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hadley said there is no \u201chard and fast rule\u201d for HRCE when it comes to communicating with families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\n want to ensure our schools strike the right balance between keeping \nparents\/guardians informed and not creating unnecessary alarm by \nvalidating rumours that have no credibility,\u201d said Hadley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After rumour left parents worried, The Laker asked HRCE and police about process FALL RIVER: The Halifax Regional Centre for Education (HRCE) and Halifax District RCMP take threats towards the safety of staff and students seriously, the two say in responses to questions about a recent rumoured threat at Lockview High School. After being contacted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,12],"tags":[2,266,5,14,782],"class_list":["post-12482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-featured","tag-fall-river","tag-hrce","tag-lockview-high","tag-rcmp","tag-school-threats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}