Weldon School, a kindergarten to Grade 8 facility in Bienfait, underwent a lockdown last Thursday as a precautionary measure after a student allegedly threatened a teacher.
Classes carried on as usual, but students were kept inside during recess and the school was locked with no one without the knowledge of the staff being allowed inside the school.
The incident occurred around 10 a.m. and the student involved in the controversy was sent home.
A spokesman for the RCMP said that no weapon was found on the student or in the home when they were asked to respond to the incident at around 11 a.m.
Sergeant Daryl Milo of the Estevan detachment of the RCMP said the student had been disciplined for a schoolyard incident and this had caused an outburst by the student, which was accompanied by a specific threat.
"But no one was harmed in any way. There was no physical activity by the student who was not charged since he's under the age of 12," said the RCMP officer who immediately established a two-person response team from his detachment to meet with the people who had been involved in the event, including family members.
"Once they have completed their investigations and discussions and filed a report, we feel this can be resolved," said Milo, which was a sentiment echoed by Marc Casavant, South East Cornerstone School Division director of education.
"I was very impressed with the manner in which the school staff and principal handled the situation. Safety was the first concern, now we'll wait for the review by the response team," said Casavant.
Milo said he had assigned Constables Sean Posehn and Erin Beaulieu to serve as the response duo.
"They have already attended to the youngster's home and spoke with the mother. No harm came to anyone in the school, or to the child so they've set up a mediation circle and hopefully there will be a satisfactory resolution to this incident. We had to take this action since there was a specific threat to cause harm that went beyond a typical student/teacher conflict," said Milo.
"The nature of the threat meant the response had to escalate beyond what one would expect to be normal and that's what led to the lockdown and our involvement."
Milo agreed with Casavant that the lockdown procedure was done according to protocol and was so efficient that many of the students weren't even aware that the building was in that mode for a good part of the day.
