Students are back to class at a Sylvan Lake middle school after a pair of bomb threats on back-to-back days earlier this week.
Just after 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Sylvan Lake RCMP received a report of a bomb threat made against Fox Run School, which is a part of the Chinook’s Edge School Division. This call came before classes had begun.
The school and the connecting Mother Theresa School were evacuated and police searched the building, finding nothing suspicious.
The following day, police received another report of a bomb threat against Fox Run School, this time at about 2 p.m. The building was again evacuated and searched, with nothing suspicious being found.
The Grade 7 and 8 students then returned to the classroom Thursday.
“It’s certainly disruptive having to deal with that on two consecutive two days,” Chinook’s Edge superintendent Kurt Sacher said.
Alberta RCMP Cpl. Troy Savinkoff said the Sylvan Lake detachment “has had some success in its investigation.”
“They are utilizing their local (general investigations) unit and they are following up on active leads,” said Savinkoff.
RCMP said in a press release that both calls are believed to have been made by the same individual.
“The police have been great following it up,” Sacher said.
“They are completely convinced (the building) is completely safe and good to go. School is open (Thursday) and I’m here today at the building. All is well – we’re back to moving forward. We really don’t appreciate the disruption, but the school staff did an outstanding job responding and following our protocols.
“When you go through a process like this you learn from it. Some of the messaging on our end, we recognize we need to move a little quicker with some of that. We’re trying to address some of those concerns. But overall we’re very pleased with the school’s staff and the care they took with the students.”
Sacher said in situations like this, the first thing schools do is contact the RCMP and follow the lead of officers.
“When they say they want the building to do a precautionary check, we have to support them. It’s pretty straight forward from that point on,” he said.
sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com
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