Youth faces charges in SRSS bomb threat
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A 16-year-old male is facing five charges as a result of a bomb threat against Steinbach Regional Secondary School on Tuesday.
Police confirmed the youth, who is alleged to have made the threat from a pay phone, has been remanded into custody and will face charges of mischief, public mischief, two counts of uttering threats and failing to comply with a sentence order under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. The youth appeared in court on Wednesday in Winnipeg.
A judge will have to decide whether the teen will recieve probation, jail, or community service. The youth is known to police.
The threat occurred on Tuesday morning. RCMP say that at about 10:35 a.m., they received a call from a pay phone from a male who said there was a bomb at the school. At 10:50 a.m. the RCMP informed Hanover School Division of the call. At 11:07 a.m. the division posted on its website that the school had been evacuated and police were on the scene.
RCMP report that police dog services were called to assist with the search for the bomb. Nothing suspicious was found.
Students were advised to go home or were sequestered at Stonybrook Middle School where parents had the option to pick them up and take them home. At about 12:19 p.m., police gave clearance for students and staff to return to SRSS.
“We don’t control bomb threats. All we can do is follow our procedures and keep students as safe as possible and continue to work with our RCMP, who have been fantastic in supporting our schools and keeping them safe. We were able to, with the RCMP support, we were able to get students back in classes this afternoon so we’re thankful for that,” said superintendent Joe Thiessen.
Police continue to investigate the motive.
In a strange twist, later that afternoon, students at Stonybrook Middle School had to wait at SRSS when their fire alarm went off due to severely cold weather. Because it was a fire alarm, students had to go outside without their jackets but were sent back to SMS by bus when the fire alarm was over.