RCMP admit messaging amid Kamloops high school gun scare ‘not ideal’

After a Kamloops high school was locked down for an afternoon last week, police told the public there was a report of a gun but failed to say whether there was ever any real danger until almost 24 hours later.

A BC RCMP spokesperson said the approach was “not ideal” after the lack of clarity left parents and students wondering whether someone had a gun at Norkam Secondary School, while social media rumours of two gunmen and one arrest swirled.

“The Kamloops situation was not ideal because, obviously, for all involved it probably would be best if we could come out quickly with a resolution on that,” Staff Sgt. Kris Clark, who is based at BC RCMP headquarters in Surrey, told iNFOnews.ca.

The lockdown affected students at multiple schools, but it was Norkam where armed police rushed indoors to clear the building on Thursday, Nov. 6. As they did, the rumours repeatedly circulated on social media into the evening.

When students left school, there were no known injuries and no indication school would be interrupted the next day, but the lack of information led many students to abandon their Friday classes.

“There was a big question mark out there. You don’t want to send your children into the line of fire on a question mark,” Steve, a parent of two Norkam students, said. iNFOnews.ca agreed not to publish his last name to protect his children’s privacy.

Steve contacted the school and the school district the next morning, but no one would tell him whether the threat was legitimate. So, he decided not to go to work and his two children would stay home from school that day.

His daughter heard from friends less that than a third of students were there for at least two of her thirty-student classes.

The Kamloops-Thompson School District didn’t respond to inquiries about school attendance the day after the lock down.

The intial call had come from from a school phone around 2 p.m. and it was later found to have been a prank, but the threat of danger meant police responded as soon as possible in case there was a legitimate for students and staff inside.

Noting that the Norkam call involved a threat, not a shooting, Clark said police protocol involving active shooters requires the first officers at the scene to enter and “eliminate the threat” as soon as possible.

Police practices have evolved over the years as RCMP and other police services learn from each other and others. Lessons from south of the US border have been employed to avoid delays in action that could cost lives.

For his part, Clark said he has been routinely training for active shooter scenarios for more than a decade and it’s common for all BC RCMP officers.

“There’s no time to wait. Seconds matter when it comes to an active shooter situation,” he said.
“We can’t stand around and wait for teams to arrive … so it’s all hands on deck and the first person who arrives gets to go first.”

In most cases, they would enter as a team and, if there was a shooter, follow the sound of gunshots. The practice is largely consistent for police departments across Canada.

“That training is ongoing, so we’ll get refreshers every couple years. Fortunately this isn’t something that happens often and it’s extremely rare in Canada,” Clark said. “But, we need to make sure everyone is aware of what tactics they’re going to use.”

Clark noted that rather than waiting for tactical Emergency Response Teams, every RCMP officer is trained regularly to respond to mass shooter events. Every second counts when a shooter is roaming a building like a school, so officers are trained take action immediately.

In Kamloops, of course, there was no active shooter, but police likely cleared the school quickly and methodically to rule out any legitimate threat.

While students sheltered inside locked rooms for hours, many contacting loved ones and classmates about the gun scare, the public waited for word from police or school officials. It came just before 4 p.m. when Kamloops RCMP said there was a report of a gun and the lockdown was lifted.

At nearly 2 p.m. the next day, Kamloops RCMP later there was “no credible evidence” that a firearm was ever inside the building. In another update the following Monday, police said the call was a “prank.”

The Kamloops RCMP detachment hasn’t responded to any of the multiple inquiries from iNFOnews.ca about the false gun report.

On Nov. 12, Clark said the lapse in public notice was due to “resources and time off,” but he added that police would typically share as much as they can when there is a risk to public safety.

“Obviously, we need to inform the public, the sooner the better, about something that may compromise their safety. In an ideal world that’s instantaneous, but that’s not alway the case,” he said. “Once the threat is no longer active, I understand the public’s interest in that process, but the urgency is not the same. I think with Kamloops’ situation… it probably could have been more ideally timed, but the urgency wasn’t there.”

That applies even in a case like Norkam, where the threat did not materialize but clarity around the presence of danger wasn’t provided. Clark added that proliferating social media rumours will sometimes prompt police to move faster in issuing public notice to clear misconceptions, though that didn’t happen in this case.

As schools returned to normal, police maintained an ongoing patrol around Norkam Secondary the day after the false report. It’s not clear whether the student who called in the “prank” has been charged or whether they will be.