Bev Facey High School in Sherwood Park was placed on lockdown for about 30 minutes Thursday afternoon after RCMP received a report of a student with a handgun nearby.
Strathcona County RCMP received information that the young man — seen near a fast-food restaurant on Emerald Drive — was a student at Bev Facey and might return to the school.
As a precaution, Bev Facey was put on lockdown.
READ MORE: What’s the difference between a school lockdown and a ‘hold and secure’?
Mounties found the student and arrested him outside the school and “subsequently located a toy gun.”
“RCMP are strongly reminding students about the dangers and repercussions of bringing imitation or toy weapons to school,” RCMP said in a news release. “It not only places themselves and others in danger, but first responders have no way of knowing whether a weapon is imitation or real.”