Threats to Kemptville high school unsettle community

Parents in Kemptville, Ont., say they're worried about their children's safety and education after unspecified threats forced a local high school to close for a total of eight days since classes resumed in September.

St. Michael Catholic High School has received five separate threats since Sept. 13. The most recent came Oct. 15, according to Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).

The first threat came in a voicemail left overnight, forcingthe school on Country Road 43 into lockdownfor four hours.

An OPP spokesperson would not comment on the specific nature of any of the threats. In a social media post, OPPsimply referred to them as "anonymous threats of violence."

"That was really scary for the kids, for the parents sitting at home not knowing what was going on, and then for it to keep repeating," said Stacy Cox, whose daughter is in Grade 7 at the school.

Cox said the later incidents were less disruptive but no less worrying.

"Luckily, the kids aren't at the school when these [subsequent] threats are coming in, so they're able to stay home and stay safe there. But it's still concerning every time you send them to school because you don't know if they're going to be getting into that situation again."

Students missing out on learning

According to a letter to parents from theCatholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario on Tuesday, the board and police have been able to head off more recent threats before students arrived in the morning. The board said it decided to close the school Tuesday and Wednesday because it hadn't yet received a formal safety assessment from OPP.

The school reopened Thursday.

Cox said teachers have been made available remotely on days when the school is closed, but she's concerned for her daughter's education if the closures continue.

"All of these kids have already missed out on so much because of COVID," shesaid. "They've had such a hard go of it the last four years.... You don't want them to be behind."

Cox said she'd like to see a plan from the school board about how it plans to make up for that lost time.

CBChasreached out to the board and the school's principal for more information, but has notreceived a response.

A town on edge

Audrey Carignan, whose nieces attendSt. Michael, shares Cox's concerns about the children.

"They are all so stressed out, and I feel like that's really, really unnecessary when we have kids that are trying to figure out how to just be a teenager and be a human," she said, addingshe's also frustrated by a lack of information from the board.

Emily Benning, whose children attend a different high school in Kemptville, said the whole town is on edge.

"It's definitely concerning being in a small town cause things like that just don't usually happen in small towns," she said.

"I have a friend who just moved to the States, so they do practices for stuff like that all the time. And I'm thinking that doesn't really affect us here, but things like this ... makeyou take a second look at that."

The OPP said its investigation into the latest threat continues, but could not comment on any connectionto the earlier ones.