For parents of Lawrence Grassi Middle School students who found the lockdown situation of Dec. 13 due to a suspected shooting nearby upsetting, procedures have changed.
At a CRPS school board meeting on Jan. 25, Superintendent Chris MacPhee said he has met with RCMP about what occurred and the types of lockdowns.
“We know some parents were very stressed at that time and we know the type of full lockdown the school went into. We also know how long it lasted and we know how many phone calls went into the RCMP, not only from parents, but from every one of our schools.
“What came out of our conversation is that maybe the school should have went into a lockdown, initially, for a first short period of time, but then it should have been taken off. And it should have been a lockdown where the doors were locked, but everybody keeps working within the school.
“That could have happened after a period of time. But also, I know and support why they asked us to go into a full lockdown. It was because the individual (suspected shooter) ran down behind LGMS and the windows are 10 feet away from the alley where he was.
“But we think we should have taken the full lockdown off; where students are laying on the floor, underneath the windows, doors closed and locked, everything. And phones aren’t even supposed to be used at that time.”
In future, RCMP will call the CRPS office right away and staff will be the ones who distribute information to parents and other schools as quickly as possible.
“So we’ll distribute information and if schools have questions, we’ll go back to the RCMP, so they don’t have 300 phone calls coming in at one time. They asked for that from us,” said MacPhee.
“In the end, it was probably fortunate that an unfortunate situation was one we’re learning from.”
Board chair Carol Picard asked if many students/families had requested counselling after the lockdown incident; due to lingering effects or trauma caused by the situation. “Were the students impacted negatively?”
The school counselor, thus far, has had just two reports of some issues, but both students also have issues from beyond the lockdown incident.
