Middleton, Lawrencetown NSCC sites evacuated
Students at the Annapolis Valley NSCC sites in Middleton and Lawrencetown were among hundreds of college students across the province forced out of their classrooms Sept. 21 as police and staff responded seriously to bomb threats at three campuses.
The evacuation in Middleton included the on-site daycare.
Chevelle Roberts, a continuing care assistant student who was standing outside the Middleton campus during the evacuation, said students were notified via the public address system that police had advised they evacuate the building.
“You hear it on the news, but you don’t hear it around here,” she said, adding that students had been hearing about bomb threats at campuses in Halifax and Sydney via Facebook so they had a bit of a heads up. But when Middleton students were told to clear the building it was still unexpected.
“We really didn’t think it would come this far.”
She said she was shocked and scared initially.
“Could this be it?” she said she speculated during the evacuation.
NSCC principal
Jason Clark, NSCC principal for the Valley region, was at the Middleton NSCC site when he received word of a threat to the Centre of Geographical Sciences in nearby Lawrencetown. He quickly drove the 10 kilometres to that site where students and staff had already evacuated the building.
“This morning NSCC had re- ceived a threat for three of our sites, Marconi in Cape Breton, IT campus in Halifax, and the Annapolis Valley campuses here in the Valley,” he said. “As a result of that the sites were evacuated - all three campuses. Both sites in the Valley - Middleton and COGS - were evacuated.”
Clark praised the professionalism of staff and students during the evacuation.
“The staff were with the students so they were evacuated to our campus regular safe areas we use for fire drills and fire evacuations so students were evacuated there and staff would be with students during that evacuation time,” Clark said.
“As soon as we were notified from our safety office in Halifax we evacuated COGS first and then we evacuated Middleton,” he said, noting that RCMP had arrived at COGS and advised staff to evacuate and that they were going to do a search. COGS staff assisted in that search. Clark said RCMP advised that Middleton also be evacuated.
Middleton search
Later when the Middleton site was evacuated at about 10:40 a.m., staff there did a search of the building. Police were not on site there. Students waited patiently outside, some seeking shade of nearby trees as the temperature and humidity rose. Some sat on the parking lot asphalt while staff circulated through the various groups updating them on what was happening.
Word finally came that COGS students were allowed back in that building, but a few minutes later, at 11:45 a.m., it was announced over the PA that the campus would be closed for the remainder of the day, starting at noon. Students were allowed back in the building to retrieve their belongings. The closure was being treated the same way as a snow day, the public address announcement stated. All other sites across the province were also being closed for the day including Kingstec in Kentville.
“The RCMP in each area and the Cape Breton Regional Police are leading the investigation on what’s transpired,” said Clark. “At this point in time the college made the decision to close all of our campuses across the province for the remainder of the day as a safety precaution for students and staff and visitors.”
NSCC advisory
According to a press release from NSCC issued at 12:15 p.m. Sept. 21, there was a communicated threat received at the Institute of Technology Campus, Marconi Campus, and the Annapolis Valley Campus (including Centre of Geographic Sciences site in Lawrencetown) earlier that morning.
The only search still underway as of 12:15 p.m. was at IT Campus in Halifax. There was no police presence in Middleton late morning.
Halifax Regional Police responded to a call at about 8 a.m. Sept. 21 to Nova Scotia Community College - Institute of Technology campus in Halifax’s north end “after the campus received a threatening message from an anonymous person.”
HRP officers and the K-9 team were at the Leeds Street campus.
Sydney’s Marconi Campus of NSCC was also closed and Cape Breton Regional Police are investigating a bomb threat there.
Cape Breton University was also evacuated due to the investigation at Marconi Campus.
“Police are on the scene investigating an undisclosed threat,” the university tweeted.