Bomb scare forces evacuation of Drumlin Heights school on Friday

A Yarmouth County school that was the subject of a weapons scare on Thursday was evacuated on Friday after a threatening note was found.

According to information posted on the Tri-County Regional School Board’s website, the note was reported to the school’s administration, who in turn contacted the RCMP and school board superintendent Phil Landry.

The RCMP carried out a risk assessment and determined there was no specific risk to students and staff at Drumlin Heights. The school board says this is considered an isolated threat that “has been dealt with effectively.”

Several parents have said they heard that the note made reference to a bomb. This information, on Friday afternoon, had not been confirmed by the school board or RCMP. But the school board superintendent did say Friday evening that the note threatened to blow up the school.

After the discovery of the note a decision was made to evacuate the school as a precautionary measure, and send the students home while the RCMP conducted their investigation.

Buses were contacted and students from grades primary to nine were sent home at 11:30 a.m. During the evacuation the school board says the students were accompanied by either a teacher or a member of the support staff. Students in Grade 10 to 12 were sent home shortly thereafter. Around 12:30 p.m. the final buses were leaving the school.

The school board says under normal circumstances, parents of younger students – those students in grades primary to two – would have been contacted to ensure arrangements were in place for the students being sent home. But the school board says this couldn’t be done in this case because of the decision to evacuate everyone, including staff. Not contacting parents did not sit well with everyone, particularly in light of the events from the day before that had both students and parents shaken.

On Thursday students were kept inside their classrooms because of a situation at the school.

A report coming out of the school was that a student with a knife had made threats towards other students at the school. The incident was reported to school administration. At first the school board made it sound as if the knife incident had happened on that very day, but in information it released to the media on Sunday, the board said an incident involving a knife had happened the previous week.

Superintendent Phil Landry said a knife was located, despite a search conducted on a bus and within the school.

Bill Curry, the board's director of programs and students services, says at the same time last Thursday in an unrelated incident the school and the RCMP were dealing with a very distraught student and for that reason teachers were asked to keep students inside the classrooms.

Asked whether there is a bullying problem at the school, Landry said last Thursday he wasn’t aware of a problem specific to this school.

He also said he didn’t know the background of the student involved in the knife incident.

The student has been removed from the school.

The school board says classes at Drumlin Heights will resume on Monday as normal.

The incident at Drumlin Heights was the third day in a row classes were disrupted at Yarmouth County schools. On Wednesday two schools in the town were locked down – Yarmouth high school and Central elementary – after reports that a high school student inside the Yarmouth Junior High had a possible handgun. The RCMP was called and the administration went into an industrial arts class and retrieved a student who was found to have a plastic pellet gun in his possession. The junior high school was not locked down because of concern doing so would escalate the situation before police and administrators knew what they were indeed dealing with.