Monseigneur Richard High School, located in the Verdun borough of Montreal, evacuated students and closed its doors for the day due to threats described as a “bad joke”.
The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) received a call around 8:45 a.m. Tuesday morning from a student, a minor, who wanted to “play a bad joke on another young person, saying that he had put an explosive device in the school”, explained to the To have to SPVM spokesperson Mariane Allaire-Morin.
“Following that, the youngster got scared and left. Management was notified by another youth, and 911 was contacted. Seeing that the situation was gaining momentum, the youngster went to see the management to say that it was him, and that it was a bad joke, for fun, ”she adds.
He was nevertheless arrested and brought to the investigation center to be questioned by investigators. The spokesperson stresses that words of this type are not to be taken lightly and that there can be repercussions. “There may be criminal charges, jokes like that, it’s serious,” she insists.
The school was closed by the management for the day and during the passage of the To have to around 11:30 a.m., the students had already left and the staff could still enter the school. There was no security perimeter and a few police officers were on site.
There may be criminal charges, jokes like that, it’s serious business.
“The school was searched inside and out” as a preventive measure, and nothing was found, said the SPVM spokesperson.
Two secondary schools on the South Shore of Montreal also closed their doors last Friday after being the target of threats.