Since January 22, three letters have been sent home to parents in northwest Regina, warning parents about reports of suspicious activity near elementary schools. Two letters were sent by Ecole Centennial and one by McLurg School.
The February 6 letter sent by Ecole Centennial talks about a man in a white vehicle offering to give a student a ride home. The student ran and reported the incident.
The January 23 McLurg letter references a suspicious vehicle.
All incidents have been reported to the Regina Police Service (RPS), who are investigating.
Hayley Stevenson’s kids go to W.H. Ford School, just blocks away from Ecole Centennial.
“So all three of these incidents have happened just a few blocks away from my house and there has been no notifications from our school,” she said.
Stevenson and other parents have been voicing their concern on Facebook. She doesn’t fault the school or public school division for not putting out letters. She’s just confused about why one wasn’t sent given the close proximity.
“In my opinion if there is a concern at a school and they’re letting their students know it should be sent out probably city wide. Regina’s a pretty small city,” Stevenson said.
Regina Public Schools spokesperson Terry Lazarou says they take all reports of suspicious activity very seriously.
“Once we’ve worked and spoken with Regina Police Service again a determination is made if that is a credible threat, and then we share that information with parents when appropriate,” Lazarou said.
In this case, RPS spokesperson Elizabeth Popowich said these reports are still unsubstantiated.
“We’re still trying to substantiate whether or not these events happened, and if so, is there any information out there that people need to be on the lookout for, and we’re just not at that stage yet,” she explained.
Police do not have enough information at this point to determine if any of the reports are linked.
“It’s always good to work on the side of caution. We take those reports seriously and investigate them as much as possible. In this instance the schools felt it was a good time for a reminder to parents and families to review safety plans with children,” Popowich said.
Speaking in general terms, Lazarou said the sometimes the school division will issue letters to show parents they are aware of community concerns.
“Sometimes a letter is sent out that isn’t necessarily based on a lot of credible proof but in cases like that we send those letters out because the community has let us know that they need to know we are at least aware of it,” he said.
Popowich said that if it is determined a there is risk to public safety or children a news release will be issued and public will be notified.
“Have letters gone home in the past that weren’t completely credible, yeah they absolutely have, but that is because we were not sure,” Lazarou said. “So we would rather err on the side being sure that parents are aware there may be a threat rather, than just saying we’ll see what happens with that.”
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