Three threats in two days at Bishop Ryan
Hamilton high school goes on lockdown for second day in a row
Hamilton police are investing “significant” resources in finding the person responsible after Bishop Ryan Catholic Secondary School came under threat for the second day in a row Tuesday, forcing close to 2,000 students and their teachers to flee the premises.
Students described scenes of chaos at the Rymal Road East school, with kids running in the hall and falling over each other, after a bomb threat was phoned in shortly after 11 a.m.
After students and teachers evacuated to nearby Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Elementary School, police brought in their tactical and bomb units to search the high school, ultimately determining there was “no validity” to the threat.
But some students said Tuesday afternoon they remained on edge and voiced concerns about returning Wednesday after what Hamilton Catholic board chair Pat Daly called an “unprecedented” situation.
“I can’t recall a similar instance where we’ve had two calls in two days to the exact same location,” said police Supt. Will Mason.
Natalia Cubelic’s religion class was in the middle of presentations Tuesday morning when she heard: “This is not a drill — we are on lockdown,” over the announcements.
“For a brief second, we all just stopped, and we’re like OK, it’s go time, I guess,” the 16-year-old later recalled.
The Grade 12 student said she and a classmate were ready to barricade the door when her teacher told everyone to run.
The students booked it out of the portable and ran across the street, she said.
“I started crying, and I was like, ‘Why is this happening again?’ We’ve been through it once, we don’t need to go through it again,” she said.
On Monday, students hid inside locked, darkened classrooms for more than four hours as tactical officers methodically searched room by room for a possible gunman.
The Catholic high school received two threatening calls from a male shortly before 8 a.m., just as school was about to begin, prompting a lockdown. Police later determined there was “no validity” to the threats.
Tuesday’s threat appears “similar in nature,” said Mason, noting it was phoned in by someone with the “same type of voice.”
“It appears to be coming, at this point, from the same number,” he added. But police will continue investigating to track the original source of the call, as available technology allows people to mimic a phone number — a tactic called phone spoofing that is used in global scams, Mason said.
He said he could not comment on whether police are leaning toward a student as the culprit.
“We will be investing significant resources in tracking back the person who made these calls and doing our best to lay charges and see them through the court process,” he said.
Possible charges could range from uttering threats to cause bodily harm or death, to mischief, to public mischief, Mason said.
Hamilton police officers arrived at Bishop Ryan Tuesday morning to follow up with staff and students and make sure they felt safe after Monday’s threats.
Police received the call about Tuesday’s bomb threat just after the officers had left, Mason noted.
Tuesday’s response differed from the day before because the threat was inside the school versus an “active shooter type” situation, he said.
“Not again” went through Diana Munoz Lopez’s head when she heard Tuesday’s announcement.
The Grade 12 student was writing a math test, and her heart started pounding, she said.
“Nobody thought that it would happen (again) today, but it did,” the 17-year-old said.
On Wednesday, the school will be open and police will be back to reassure staff and students, Mason said.
Board chair Daly said social workers will be on-site for staff and students who need support, and the school’s principal will be meeting with staff to see what type of additional resources might be needed going forward.
While the board will look at whether there are “areas of improvement” to consider, the main concern is supporting students, staff and parents as they get through this, Daly said.
He said he understands why students might be apprehensive about returning to school, but it’s important to know staff and police are doing everything they can to ensure the school is safe.
“The police clearly are doing all they can in terms of investigation, and we’re really hopeful that the individual that is doing this will be apprehended quickly and punished to the full extent of the law,” Daly said.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Hamilton police at 905-546-3851.