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ShareSemiahmoo high school evacuated after bomb threat
By Tracy Holmes - Peace Arch News
Published: September 29, 2008 12:00 PM
Updated: September 30, 2008 2:47 PM
Semiahmoo Secondary
students were evacuated
Monday after police were
notified of a bomb threat
against the school.
After an extensive search,
no danger was found.
Surrey RCMP Sgt. Roger
Morrow said the threat came
in via a third-party e-mail
just before noon, prompting
an immediate call for school
officials to clear the building.
“We just heard over the
PA to get out of the school,”
student Jackie Mack said,
standing with friends across
the street from the school
shortly after being notified.
“We had to get off the
school grounds.”
The announcement came during the lunch
hour.
“They were yelling at us to get out of the
school, screaming at us to get off
the grounds,” said Daniel Fowler,
a Grade 12 student.
Mack and Fowler said school
officials gave no explanation of
why the quick evacuation was necessary,
only that it was “not a drill” and that
students had to get at least a block away
from the school.
School district spokesperson Doug
Strachan said the hasty action was typical of
any evacuation.
“As part of an evacuation you don’t want
to delay,” Strachan said. “That’s what an
evacuation is.”
The alert did not extend to neighbouring
H.T. Thrift Elementary or any other southend
schools.
H.T. Thrift officials were asked to
accommodate some of the high
school’s special-needs students.
Seven RCMP patrol cars were
on the scene, as well as two police
dog teams. The search of the
school was finished by about 4 p.m.
Strachan said students were back to the
books Tuesday.
“Everything’s back to normal and a letter
will go home today,” Strachan said.
Morrow noted while such threats are
always taken seriously, they rarely escalate
beyond the initial threat.
“I’m not aware of any that have ever been
actualized,” Morrow said.
