Updated with remarks from Principal Joe McHale of Maaqtusiis High School: 3.33 p.m. April 13, 2016
It seems to have been a case of being the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Maaqtusiis Elementary and Secondary Schools had planned a lockdown drill for April 13, but in the morning of that day a visitor to the school did not follow the visitors’ protocol, and the school proceeded with an actual lockdown.
“We have a system where visitors must check in and they require appointments, and we had an issue with that today,” said Principal Joe McHale.
McHale said it was just a coincidence that the two events happened on the same morning, which led to some confusion. Added to that, the visitor had some previous trouble that whipped up concern in the community. McHale wants to make it clear though that the person that entered the school made no threats, nor did he carry any weapons.
Parents of children attending the schools were startled to hear that both schools were on lockdown.
Word spread quickly through the community that a troubled community member had entered at least one of the schools.
Posts on social media created confusion with some people saying it was a safety drill while others said there was a real threat.
Over lunch hour parents asked on social media if everything was okay at the school. Others thanked school staff for keeping their children safe by escorting them from the school to waiting rides or to parents.
One parent, who wishes to remain unnamed, told Ha-Shilth-Sa that announcements over the school intercom warned people that the lockdown was real and that only the main door would remain unlocked.
This incident came two weeks after the Port Alberni Friendship Center was placed on lockdown after a distraught, 22-year-old man wielding a knife entered the building. Subsequent reports about the incident say the man was ordered to live with his mother at Ahousaht.
It was the same young man in the Alberni friendship centre incident whose visit to the Ahousaht school triggered the lockdown.
The mother of the young man contacted us saying there was no weapon involved, adding that she had just been in contact with the principal, and McHale has confirmed that to Ahousaht over their VHF channel.
She said after the Port Alberni incident she has worked to get her son the help he needs through counselling. She said after the lockdown was lifted, he came home, and was feeling hurt by the incident, which stemmed from a misunderstanding of needing to get permission to go into the school. He was helping to take her grandson into the school to go to the bathroom, she said. She nor her son were aware of the visitors' protocol.
Because of the Port Alberni incident, she said, people are fearful of him.
“I'm trying so hard to help and wonder about him and how others will treat him, she told Ha-Shilth-Sa. “We are helping best we can… I know he's sorry.”
