Several parents, teachers and students experienced moments of anguish on Wednesday, when threatening calls once again forced the confinement of schools in Laval. Police say they take every threat seriously, but some schools targeted by these threats have not been placed on lockdown.
Posted at 3:36 p.m.
Calls made to 911 targeting high schools have increased over the past week in Laval and the scenario repeated itself on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, two secondary schools had to be confined following such calls. The previous week, two other schools in Laval had been targeted.
This time, the Laval City Police Service (SPVL) does not want to say how many schools were targeted or how many had to be confined, but specifies that investigations are underway to find out if all these calls come from one and the same person.
“We have had police deployments underway in schools in Laval since this morning regarding threatening comments. Some schools have carried out preventive confinement,” said Érika Landry, spokesperson for the Laval City Police Department, on Wednesday.
Students and staff at Saint-Martin High School had to barricade themselves in their classes, emails obtained by The Press. The first message sent to parents by the management of Saint-Martin secondary school arrived a little after 11 a.m. this morning. It had the subject “barricaded confinement at school today”.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, LA PRESSE
Students and staff at Saint-Martin secondary school had to barricade themselves in their classes.
The parents of the students who attend this school in the Chomedey district received a second message about an hour later to tell them that “the police are continuing the checks”.
It was at 2:45 p.m., almost 4 hours later, that the confinement was lifted.
Videos filmed by the father of a student at this secondary school show that several worried parents had gathered in front of the establishment on Boulevard Saint-Martin while waiting for their children to leave. Young people were advised to turn off their cell phones for the duration of the confinement.
The SPVL reminds that “any person who initiates a call to 911 and who triggers a false investigation is exposed to criminal charges, from the age of 12”.
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