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Hamilton high school evacuated for 2nd day in row due to threat

Click to play video: 'Hamilton high school evacuated Thursday due to bomb threat'
Hamilton high school evacuated Thursday due to bomb threat
As Catherine McDonald reports, the email threat was related to a controversy surrounding a teacher and gender identity – Sep 21, 2023

For the second day in a row, some students and parents endured confusion amid another bomb threat made to a Hamilton learning facility.

Hamilton police say Nora Frances Henderson Secondary School on Upper Sherman Avenue was emptied again on Friday as a precaution and urged residents to avoid the area via social media.

Nora Frances was evacuated Thursday morning after a bomb threat was emailed to the school and multiple media outlets, including Global News.

The threat referenced the teacher attire controversy that erupted at an Oakville, Ont., high school last year.

Students from Nora Frances Secondary School congregated on a football field at the facility following an evacuation amid a threat on Sept. 22, 2023. Nolin Cleroux

Natasha Paddock, whose son Nolin Cleroux is a student at Nora Frances, said she and several other parents were not notified about the Friday morning threat.

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She says she learned about the evacuation via a text message from her son around 9:15 a.m.

“The board needs to do a better job at communicating,” Paddock told Global News in an email.

“Not every student has a cell phone and quite a few rely on parents picking them up.”

A spokesperson for the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) didn’t acknowledge any threat in a statement and characterized the incident Friday as an “active situation.”

“HWDSB will communicate updates to students, families and staff directly, and any public information may be posted online,” the spokesperson said in an email.

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Nora Frances students and staff were evacuated to Ray Lewis Elementary School on Thursday before both schools were dismissed at 1 p.m. due to the ongoing investigation.

Const. Indy Bharaj confirmed Thursday afternoon that Hamilton police determined there was no threat of any bombs on the premises.

Oakville's Trafalgar high receives another online threat

Both Halton police and the Halton District School Board confirmed another threat was sent online to Trafalgar High School in Oakville on Friday.

The school was the subject of several threats in late 2022 in connection with a similar controversy surrounding a teacher’s attire.

Students did complete classes as schedule despite the occurence.

In a letter to parents, staff said they received the notice just before 10:30 a.m., however a security scan around the site did not reveal the extistence of any immediate theat.

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