Tuesday December 8, 2020 | LANGFORD, BC
by Mary P Brooke, editor | Island Social Trends
Today Tuesday December 8 the West Shore RCMP were on site at Belmont Secondary School investigating report of a social media message that apparently was intended to advise students of Belmont Secondary School to not attend school on this date.
“Further messages circulating among students allege the possibility of a shooting taking place at the school,” it was stated by West Shore RCMP Media Relations Officer Cst Nancy Saggar in a news release at 8:12 am as the school day got rolling.
By 10:45 am there was an update to “confirm that our investigation revealed that there was no threat to the school”. The student who made the original comment has been identified, after a few hours. Previously, the police said that they had “not confirmed the validity of the message or where it originated from.. the message appears to be circulating among students by way of their social media accounts”, said Saggar.
Sooke School District (SD62) administration and school administration were advised of the situation at the start of the day and worked with police.
The West Shore RCMP says it takes reports of this nature seriously and encourages anyone who comes across messages of this nature to report such instances to local police right away.
The school remained open throughout this episode.
SD62 response:
After all was resolved, SD62 administration posted this statement:
“Today’s threat incident in SD62 is a good reminder for our school community that we take all threats or chatter very seriously. Through years of training and collaboration, we were able to find the source quickly and determined that the threat was not credible and more of a misunderstanding.”
“School is a place full of resources and that includes support teams. If you or someone you know is feeling like they might need someone to talk to, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your school’s teacher, principal, counsellor, etc. We are here for you.”
