Northern Lights Public Schools (NLPS) can neither confirm nor deny if there was motive to one of their students bringing a gun to school.
Bonnyville RCMP is investigating an incident after a Bonnyville Centralized High School (BCHS) male student brought a gun to school on Monday, March 12.
However, the student responsible wasn't arrested until the following morning.
RCMP confirmed that although a fellow student had known about the firearm being on the school property, they didn't alert school officials or police until the next day.
"We don't know the motive for this individual bringing the firearm reportedly to the school the day before, and we're still looking into why the students who did witness this, didn't report it to either staff or the police in a timely manner," stated RCMP media relations officer for the eastern Alberta district Cpl. Ron Bumbry.
After receiving information of the incident at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, local RCMP attended the school and arrested the student. However, the firearm was not located at the school or on the suspect.
"It wasn't on his possession, and because the incident wasn't reported until the next day, the firearm wasn't located in the school," explained Bumbry. "It was seized later on."
Nicole Garner, communications officer for NLPS, said after confirming there was no threat to students, the school determined a lockdown wasn't necessary. If the gun had been reported to staff the day before, the situation would have been handled differently.
"Obviously, had we been aware the previous day, the reaction or the actions we would have taken would have been much different than finding out after the fact and determining there wasn't a threat at that time to the students in the school," she described. "One of the first things we did was determine if there was a threat to student safety, because of course, there are also consequences of doing a lockdown, and that can be quite traumatic for students."
The male involved was charged with possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, carrying a concealed weapon, unauthorized possession of a weapon, and possession of a restricted firearm without license.
The student, who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, has been released on the conditions that he will not attend the school or contact several students. He will appear in the Bonnyville Provincial Courthouse on March 20, 2018.
NLPS is stressing they were not aware of the situation until Tuesday, when it was reported it to police.
"Part of the rumours going around is that the gun was there on Tuesday, we know that's not what happened. Most of the speculation is about what a motive may or may not have been. I can't comment on that, but what I think people also need to know, this did just come to everyone's attention on Tuesday. There are still people to talk to, there are still things to look into and review," expressed Garner.
Superintendent for the school division Rick Cusson said in a release, "We are grateful that it was able to be resolved without more significant consequences... We are thankful to those who alerted us about the situation so that action could be taken."
Both NLPS and the RCMP want to take the opportunity to remind students all suspicious behaviour should be reported.
"We hope students err on the side of caution, and at least approach staff if they're not comfortable with the police and we can take it from there. But this wasn't reported for a full day," Bumbry expressed. "If there is any type of offence being committed in school, with or without a firearm, anything serious, that staff are notified. If it's criminal in nature, police need to be notified."
The school division has removed the student from the school, and their disciplinary procedures are being enacted.
"As with any serious incident that occurs at our schools, we will take time to debrief and look at what happened and look at whether or not there are things we could improve in the future to deal with similar events," Cusson expressed.
Supports for staff, students, and parents have been put in place as a result of the incident.
Garner said, "I think everybody is pretty shaken. I think sometimes, because of where we're located, we look at things happening on the news and we think, "oh that's never going to happen here,' this kind of drives home that things can really happen anywhere."
If anyone has any information they feel is pertinent to the investigation, they're urged to contact the RCMP.
