13-year-old arrested for calling in bomb threat at Hamilton school, police say | CBC News
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A 13-year-old has been arrested for calling in a bomb threat to Mount Albion Elementary School in Stoney Creek, Hamilton police said Tuesday afternoon.
In a news release, police said they were able to trace a call from the school “to a local address, where a youth admitted making the threat.”
There have been 16 school threats in Hamilton since Thursday, police said. Some of those have been emailed threats, as confirmed by police last week and in notices sent to parents from local school boards.
Police said the service continued to investigate the threats.
English and French school boards impacted
Leanne Johnson, whose son is in Grade 10 at Nora Frances Henderson Secondary School, said it has been “brutal” for so many threats to be received in recent days.
She had been keeping her son home recently due to unrelated bullying incidents but was hoping to send him back to school last week.
“That’s when the bomb threat started coming in,” she told CBC Hamilton Tuesday.
Sabreina Dahab, Ward 2 trustee for the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB), posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Hess Street and Central elementary schools were also evacuated Tuesday morning due to bomb threats.
“The police were on site. Both schools were cleared for re-entry and families have been notified,” she wrote.
Dahab said the school board had shared “resources to support families and students as they navigate these really scary threats.”
This is two of many bomb threats that have been made against <a href=” schools in the last week. <br><br>Schools have emergency/crisis response plans and the HWDSB has been using the Safe Schools Policies, Secure Schools, and the Hamilton Police/School Board Protocol to respond. <br><br>2/5
—@sabreina_dahab
In an email to CBC Hamilton earlier on Tuesday, HWDSB said “the safety and well-being of our students and staff remains our top priority. We take every threat of violence against a school community seriously and have supports in place for student and staff well-being.”
The public French school board said Monday that two of its schools were identified in an anonymous email that said bombs had been placed at several schools in the Hamilton area.
Pavillon de la jeunesse elementary school was evacuated until police gave the go-ahead to re-enter and police did a “complete inspection” of secondary school Georges-P.-Vanier but didn’t find anything, the board said.
“The threats, real or fictitious, are not taken lightly and may lead to serious consequences for the people who utter them,” Hugues Kamga Wambo, superintendence of education with Conseil Scolaire Viamonde, said in an email sent to parents.
Threats 1st targeted Nora Frances Henderson high school
Several threats were emailed last week, prompting the evacuation of Nora Frances Henderson Secondary School on Thursday and Friday, police said previously.
The threat on Thursday referred to a teacher who began working at the high school in September. The teacher had previously worked at a Halton school and garnered international media for wearing what appeared to be large prosthetic breasts.
Oakville Trafalgar High School received threats resulting in police investigations in late 2022.
The emailed threat on Friday was similar to one received on Thursday, Const. Indy Bharaj said previously.
“It causes parents to really worry about their kids and puts them in a difficult position about whether or not to send them to school,” Bharaj said.
High-profile incidents can create ‘contagion effect,’ experts say
Johnson said the people sending the threats need to “grow up.
“I think it’s awful. I don’t understand what is going on nowadays,” she said.
Speaking to CBC Hamilton before police released information about the arrest, Johnson said she wishes HWDSB and police were releasing more information to parents. “It would be good to know if they have even caught who’s doing it,” she said.
Earlier this year, Niagara police charged two 15-year-olds after a series of threats were made to Fort Erie schools.
Each teenager was charged with three counts of uttering threats, false messaging and public mischief.
In 2022, schools in nearby Hamilton faced at least 23 shooting or bombing threats, leading to several charges. Some of those charged were teens.
The threats occurred shortly after a mass shooting at a school in Uvalde, Texas. Experts told CBC Hamilton then such high-profile incidents can create a “contagion effect” that can trigger other similar acts.
In response to the 2022 series of threats, Sgt. Jason Tadeson, youth services co-ordinator for Hamilton Police Services, said there was no “cookie-cutter” explanation behind school threats and each may have multiple factors at play.
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