No criminal charges will be laid against a student who made a fake bomb threat at Shuswap Middle School Tuesday, Jan. 20, but the school district will be taking disciplinary action.
The student responsible was identified by police and school district officials just a few hours after the threat was made.
On Wednesday, a school-wide assembly was held with students and teachers to focus on the impact of the situation to the entire community. Members of the RCMP and school district officials addressed the students, who were also given an opportunity to share their thoughts and feelings about the situation.
“Restorative practices will be shared and the impacts of this type of situation will be discussed,” said the statement from School District #83.
This was the second bomb threat and evacuation at the school in five weeks.
On Dec. 17, the school was cleared and searched by an RCMP bomb-sniffing dog after a written threat was found in the boys’ washroom.
The culprit in that incident has not been identified. The school district said the culprit in today’s incident is not thought to have been involved in the previous threat.
As with the previous incident, the school followed protocol for such situations, which includes the evacuation and lockdown of the school.
“Earlier today, a false bomb threat was made towards Shuswap Middle School. As a precaution, students were taken to South Broadview Elementary while RCMP investigated the incident,” said a statement from School District #83 Tuesday.
Sgt. Andrew Hunter with the Salmon Arm RCMP said police were called at 10:48 a.m. after school officials discovered someone had written a bomb threat on a bathroom wall. The school was evacuated and locked down as a precaution, while police, members of the fire department and an ambulance were brought in.
“Information was quickly obtained from several sources and a student was identified. The student admitted to writing on the bathroom wall and that the bomb threat was not real,” said Hunter, who added the information was confirmed by other evidence and a locker search.
Students were then taken back to the middle school to resume afternoon classes.
