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UPDATE: Lockdown lifted at Nanaimo high school following threats

Nearby elementary school was in hold-and-secure

UPDATE: The lockdown at Dover Bay Secondary has been lifted and McGirr Elementary School is no longer under a hold-and-secure, say Nanaimo RCMP. Police say parents can come and go in the area to pick up kids from school.

PREVIOUSLY POSTED: According to a social media post from the Nanaimo-Ladysmith school district, Dover Bay is now under a lockdown. McGirr Elementary remains under hold-and-secure procedures.

Nanaimo RCMP communicated via social media that Dover Bay was placed on lockdown “following information received which elevated the risk assessment,” adding that the measure is “in place out of an abundance of caution only.”

Lockdown procedures, according to a document shared by the school district, are in response to a potential threat within the school, and cause normal activities within the school to cease.

More to come.

PREVIOUSLY POSTED: Police officers are on scene at a north-end Nanaimo high school after threats were made against the school.

According to a Nanaimo RCMP press release, Dover Bay Secondary School is currently in a hold-and-secure situation after an “unspecified threat was directed” against it. Given that McGirr Elementary School is in the vicinity, it has also been place in a hold-and-secure as well, police said.

“The decision to place additional police officers at both facilities is not taken lightly and was done after consulting with senior management of the [Nanaimo Ladysmith Public Schools’] school board,” Const. Gary O’Brien, Nanaimo RCMP spokesman, said in the press release. “The safety and security of staff and students at both facilities is paramount and the officers will remain in place and visible, until the situation has been resolved.”

A similar instance occurred at the secondary school in November.

Under a hold-and-secure situation business continues as usual inside the school, but nobody is permitted to enter or exit, according to the school district.

More to come.

READ ALSO: Three Nanaimo high schools in lockdown after threat


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