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By Sheena Roszell

There was never a threat: RCMP

Mar 29, 2018 | 3:26 PM

Several students in the city stayed home today after rumours spread on social media about a threat to a local school.

Yesterday afternoon, Mounties were made aware of a social media post indicating there could be violence at The Grande Prairie Composite High School today.

RCMP and the Grande Prairie Public School District were able to find the origin of the rumour and they determined it was false.

Many social media posts were shared, and some indicated other local schools were to be targeted too.

Corporal Shawn Graham says it was determined there was never an actual threat made on social media, but it was a rumour that was spread online.

“Problems exist when people share information on social media that hasn’t been proven to be factual,” explained Graham.

He says the sharing of the rumour on social media created a lot of fear.

“And that’s why it’s important for us (the RCMP) to conduct a full investigation and determine whether the information is credible or not, and then advise the public,” he said.

“The investigators in this did a good job in connecting with the school. That partnership was essential with the school to be able to get the information for this investigation and do everything possible to figure out who was involved and where the information originated from, to determine whether it was true or not,” he said. “In this case, the investigation concluded that the information was false, and the public was informed of this.”

Graham says RCMP always take these kinds of situations seriously.

In the meantime, the G.P. Public School District has released a statement saying that at no point was there a direct threat made to the school and with the exception of it being shared through social media, they are not aware of any threats being made towards any other schools.

by Sheena Roszell