School superintendent says social media has blown West Kelowna school threat way out of proportion

CENTRAL OKANAGAN – Central Okanagan superintendent of schools Kevin Kaardal says reaction to rumours around a threat made by a West Kelowna high school student was unfounded and made much worse by social media.

Kaardal said his senior staff has spent the last two days calling concerned parents from Mount Boucherie Secondary School as well as Kelowna Secondary School trying to tamp down persistent rumours of a possible school shooting or other act of violence.

“Frankly, this is social media out of control and it’s been made worse by the mainstream media,” Kaardal said on Friday morning. “And people are buying into it instead of the assurances from the principal and administration.”

Word of a threat made by a student at Mount Boucherie Secondary School was first acknowledged last week in a letter to parents from principal Raquel Steen.

Without giving details, the letter acknowledged the threat but made it clear to parents the school was working closely with Kelowna RCMP had investigated and discounted it as serious, using the district’s violence risk assessment protocol.

But far from calming nerves, the letter seemed to spur on even more rumours and inaccurate information, a clearly frustrated Kaardal said, and by the end of this week the threat had now grown to include Kelowna Secondary School.

“This was an unfortunate comment made in the heat of the moment that got outside a certain circle and made it to social media,” Kaardal said. “Some people for their own reasons, some about seeking attention, some maybe wanting a day off, for whatever reason, they keep it going and made it worse.”

Kaardal says he doesn’t discount the fear and anxiety some parents and students may be feeling in the wake of the recent school shooting in Parkland, Florida, where a student armed with an assault rifle killed seventeen students.

But he said that shouldn’t outweigh the information and statements coming from school administrators during this type of situation.

"People need to take a rational approach when authority is speaking,” he added. “If there was any kind of realistic threat, it would have been in the media long ago.”

The superintendent says the district is working with the student who made the original statement but has also contacted some of the students who they felt were propagating and amplifying the situation on social media.

“We take this very seriously and we want them to know that,” he said.

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