FORT FRANCES—A group of students held a brief demonstration at Fort Frances High School on Thursday morning to voice their concerns about a series of threats that allegedly have taken place there over the past week.
School administration met with a small group of students and is taking action on the issue.
“Our paramount concern is the safety of our students,” Fort High principal Gord McCabe said late Thursday morning.
“I want to assure parents we are doing everything we can to act on these threats,” he stressed. “Any students that we find that have made threats that we can substantiate are being dealt with very, very severely.”
The demonstration took place outside the school’s main office.
“We had a group of between 65 and 75 students who did not report to class and who gathered in the atrium,” McCabe noted.
He had heard rumours the demonstration would take place and asked the OPP to attend.
“We wanted to meet with students and give them some information, but we weren’t going to meet with a group of 60 or 75 students, so we asked them to get a delegation together,” he explained.
“Insp. Dave Lucas, S/Sgt. Steve Loshaw, and myself met with these students and discussed the concerns that they had over some threats that have been issued supposedly by some students.
“There have been a lot of rumours floating around the school for about the last week now,” he added.
“Our meeting was quite productive. The students raised a number of concerns that we are doing our very best to act on,” McCabe said.
The students issued a statement after the meeting.
“We talked at length and are satisfied the school and the police are doing everything they can, and that the school is acting on this issue,” it read.
“We are asking that students report everything they see that might contain or constitute threats or bullying, to the office or to a teacher they trust,” it added.
McCabe said a number of rumours have been circulating, including one that a gun had been seized at the school.
“That is simply not true,” he stressed.
McCabe also said, to his knowledge, that no students have been charged as of yet, although the school has issued some suspensions over the issue.
School administration, in co-operation with the OPP, have been investigating this “very actively,” McCabe stressed, and will continue to do so.
(Fort Frances Daily Bulletin)
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
