What happens when a BC school is locked down

It’s the duty of any police officer who responds to a BC school lockdown to get inside as soon as possible, then take down the threat.

That might sound obvious, but it wasn’t always that way.

BC RCMP, and police across the country, adopted the model in the wake of increasing school shootings south of the border and realizing, in some cases, that waiting for specialized tactical teams costs lives.

“The reality is, if it’s an active shooter event there’s no time to wait. If you’re the first on scene and you’ve got other officers behind you, you’re going to form up together,” Staff Sgt. Kris Clark, BC RCMP spokesperson, told iNFOnews.ca. “But, honestly, if you have a delay of minutes before the next person arrives, you’re going to go in and eliminate that threat.”

When a Kamloops high school was locked down after a student called to say they had a gun, officers were there to clear the building as soon as possible. There’s no waiting for the specialized Emergency Response Team — the officers who got there first would have been the first inside.

“We can’t stand outside and wait for teams to arrive while people are actively being killed inside, right? So it’s all hands on deck, and the first person that arrives gets to go first,” Staff Sgt. Clark said.

The Norkam Secondary School lockdown lasted for several hours, prompted by what Kamloops RCMP have deemed a prank call. Whether or not the report was thought to be dubious to begin with, police responded quickly to rule out any danger first.

It’s not uncommon for Kamloops schools to be placed on “hold and secure” status when crimes occur outside. That still allows students and staff to move freely inside, but no one can go in or out until police clear the scene. A “lockdown,” meanwhile, means everyone stays in the room they are in, doors are locked and windows are covered. Like other provinces, there is a standardized practice across BC.

Most schools have periodic lockdown drills so staff and students know what to do, which could be used in the event there is someone posing a threat to the school inside or out.

The worst-case scenario is a school shooting. The all-too-common mass school shootings in the US are extremely rare in Canada and have never happened in BC.

In the event that did happen, police protocol is to follow the sound of gunshots.

Staff Sgt. Clark said school district’s hand control of the scene to police. Local departments know the layout of each school so they’re prepared for a high-risk lockdown scenario, and officers are routinely trained on how to respond to the calls.

“We already know what we’re going to do, what the layout of the school is, the entrances and exits,” he said. “We can formulate our plan based on that information, but it’s obviously dictated by the sound of active killing, whether it’s gunfire or whatever it is.”

Police are also in charge of alerting the public when there’s a risk, just as they are expected to do in the event of any major public safety risk.

Though not a school shooting, Canadian police agencies, and RCMP in particular, have taken note after the 2020 Nova Scotia shooting and the subsequent Mass Casualty Commission report.

Staff Sgt. Clark said BC RCMP takes very seriously the need to inform the public at the outset of a public safety threat.

“Obviously, we need to inform the public, the sooner the better, about something that might compromise their safety. In an ideal world that’s instantaneous, but that’s not always the case, simply because we need to receive the information, process it, then respond to the information,” he said.

In those cases, it would merely include a brief description of the incident and advise the public on safety measures to take, if needed.

After the scene is cleared, especially if there was no legitimate threat in the end, the follow-up is less urgent as police piece together what happened.

“Once that threat is no longer active… I understand the public’s interest in that process, but the urgency is not the same,” he said. “Ultimately, I think the most important thing is that once we’re able to we provide those updates.”

In the case of Norkam, Kamloops RCMP appeared to fall short. Clark said the detachment’s communication to the public was “not ideal,” which failed to inform the public whether or not there was a firearm at all until the next day.

After the lockdown was lifted on Thursday, Nov. 6, police informed the public that a person with a gun inside the school was reported at 2 p.m. that day. Throughout the afternoon, armed police were seen surrounding the school as parents waited to pick up their children.

Rumours circulated on social media that one maybe two people were in the school with guns and that one person was arrested.

None of that was true, but police didn’t clarify that there was “no credible evidence” of a firearm until around 2 p.m. the next day. Then, police confirmed the call was a hoax after the weekend.