Keeping parents and the public better informed during a school lockdown will be SD73’s top priority should such an unfortunate event occur again.
“If we can’t say much we will say something,” Interim superintendent Mike McKay told media during a recent press conference.
McKay said district staff conducted a thorough review with RCMP and Kamloops Fire and Rescue — and within its own ranks — following a lockdown at NorKam secondary on Nov. 6. One thing that became very clear from the point of the school’s community was an uncomfortable lag in communication.
Although the delay in providing information to parents was in part because SD73 administrators didn’t want to compromise any action or investigation by RCMP, it’s clear whatever information that can be made public, needs to be done so quickly, he said.
“We will provide people with the information we can without compromising any of the variables that impact what is happening on the ground.”
A prank 9-1-1 call touched off that tense afternoon at NorKam secondary, rattling students, parents, and much of Kamloops’ North Shore before police confirmed there was never a gunman inside the school.
The call came in just before 2 p.m., claiming an armed person was roaming the halls. The school was in lockdown within minutes, and nearby schools were either locked down or held in place as RCMP cruisers poured into the area. Tactical officers swept through the neighbourhood, rifles drawn, as parents began gathering behind the police tape.
Inside the school, students waited behind locked doors, listening to updates over the PA while officers moved room to room. By 3:20 p.m., neighbouring schools were released from their hold-and-secure, and NorKam students began filing out about half an hour later — tired, shaken, but safe.
RCMP later said there was no evidence of a firearm. Instead, investigators found the 9-1-1 call had been made from a phone left unattended in the building, the work of a student who was briefly detained.
In the days that followed, SD73 brought in counsellors and police maintained a visible presence.