Police officers were called to Sir Robert Borden High School in Ottawa’s Nepean neighbourhood on Thursday afternoon after a message threatening a staff member was allegedly phoned in to the school.
Ottawa Police Service spokesperson Const. Chuck Benoit said the threat was physical in nature and involved a weapon, but officers found nothing that substantiated the concerning message when they searched the west-end high school.
Benoit said he could not confirm how the threat was sent but the school’s principal, Wendy Verreault, said in a statement addressed to parents that the school had received “a threatening phone call.”
Police have launched an investigation into who made the threat, Benoit said.
“We don’t have a suspect that sent that message so we’re still looking into it but everything’s clear at the school,” Benoit said. “There’s nothing at the school that’s a threat.”
Sir Robert Borden High School is located on Greenbank Road, just north of Craig Henry Drive. It is home to approximately 825 students in Grades 7 to 12, according to the school’s website.
After receiving the threatening call, the high school executed a precautionary measure called a “secure school,” the principal’s statement said. Until police determined no threat existed, staff and students remained inside their classrooms with the doors locked, Verreault wrote.
“Classroom instruction was not interrupted and your child might not even realize that the school was in this setting,” said the statement, sent to Global News via email by a spokesperson for the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board. “Staff conducted themselves in a professional and caring manner and the students’ day was not negatively impacted.”
Police were contacted “immediately” after the school received the threat, Verreault wrote.
Ottawa police said they were called to the school shortly after 12:45 p.m., and had concluded their visit by 2:45 p.m. An evacuation of the school was not necessary, Benoit said.
When asked, Benoit said he was not able to provide further details about the contents of the threat or the staff member it allegedly targeted.
A staff member at Sir Robert Borden told Global News over the phone that Verreault would not be commenting on the incident.