THUNDER BAY - A 14-year-old youth has been arrested in connection with an alleged threat that appeared to target Westgate Collegiate and Vocational Institute.
Students and staff at the school were placed under a hold-and-secure protocol on Monday and police were dispatched to the school at about 11:30 a.m. Several cruisers and at least two unmarked cars were seen at the south-side school.
According to police, a post to social media featured a photograph of what appeared to be a firearm.
A copy of the photo, which was posted to Snapchat, has been obtained by tbnewswatch.com. The caption reads, "Watch out Westgate. WTFFFFF. Can't wait to go shootin."
The 14-year male was arrested shortly after 12 p.m. and is facing charges of uttering threats and is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday. He cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Thunder Bay Police said this is the second incident this school year in which social media posts have caused others to believe a school was being threatened with violence.
Police are asking parents to have frank conversations with their school-aged children about responsible use of social media, adding that vague posts, jokes and pranks can easily be taken out of context and cause serious harm.
"We are trying to get the message out to students and parents that anything done on social media, be it a joke or a message sent to someone because they are too afraid to face them in person, is going to be looked at by police if it's any threatening manner," said Const. Frank Tropea, school resource officer with the Thunder Bay Police. "We take it seriously."
Last year, Hammarskjold High School closed more than a dozen times following repeated anonymous threats directed at the school, and Lakehead Public School Board Officials said they were pleased the situation at Westgate was resovled so quickly.
"After going through the experience last year, which was a prolonged experienced, we were very pleased that within 40 minutes this was resolved," said Lakehead Board communications officer, Bruce Nugent.
Nugent added that the school board will not change how it handles threats in the future and will continue to put the safety of staff and students first and foremost.
There was a minor issue today with the text messages sent to parents, with some messages being delayed, and Nugent said the school board is working to resolve the issue.
Students were also the ones to contact police regarding the posts on social media and Nugent said that shows students are worried about a repeat of last year and don't want to see their academic year disrupted.
But with an arrest in less than an hour of police being contacted, Nugent hopes that sends a message to anyone wanting to threaten a school in the future.
"All you need to do is look back to last year and what occurred today," he said. "I believe situtations like this will never be unresolved. They will be resolved. You will be caught if you decide to do something like that."
