Nanaimo RCMP officers patrolled the outskirts of Dover Bay Secondary School on Friday, February 21 in response to a threat received by Nanaimo RCMP. (Alex Rawnsley/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Alex Rawnsley

LOCKDOWN

Lockdown lifted at Dover Bay Secondary following early morning threat

Feb 21, 2020 | 1:14 PM

NANAIMO — RCMP officers have scaled back their response and removed the lockdown of Dover Bay Secondary after an early morning threat.

Shortly before 11 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 21, Nanaimo RCMP established a perimeter around Dover Bay and McGirr schools, with Nanaimo-Ladysmith Public Schools (NLPS) implementing hold and secure procedures.

Officers were checking larger vehicles and bags, while speaking with drivers in the area.

A source inside Dover Bay confirmed to NanaimoNewsNOW the upgrade to lockdown status, with officers urgently telling students to get into classrooms just after 1 p.m.

The lockdown was lifted just after 2 p.m. with parents allowed to go into the school and pick up their kids. The hold and secure at McGirr was also lifted.

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According to NLPS, a lockdown is used in response to a dangerous assailant within the school. Classroom doors are to be closed and secured with lights off and students told to get low or behind heavy furniture.

Hold and secure procedure is used when there is a security concern in the neighbourhood. Exterior doors and windows are secured, however normal operations continue within the school.

Police have not commented on the nature of the threat, only saying via Twitter the escalation from hold and secure to lockdown was out of an “abundance of caution” and done because of “information received which elevated the risk assessment.”

Dover Bay Secondary, McGirr Elementary and NDSS were all in lockdown mode on November 29, 2019 due to an unspecified threat deemed not to be credible.

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