North Vancouver’s Handsworth secondary school was evacuated midday Tuesday and RCMP’s bomb squad was brought in after the discovery of “a small explosive device.”
The school’s administrators initiated an “early release” of students at 12:30 p.m. after they became aware a student brought the device to school.
“It never did harm anybody. It was never used in a threatening manner but it was brought to school and out of an abundance of caution, not knowing if there were other devices in the school, like in his locker or other areas, they decided to do a search of the school,” said Cpl. Richard De Jong, North Vancouver RCMP spokesman.
Police spoke to the student while his parents were present, De Jong said.
“Of course, criminal charges may be considered along with whatever the school deems to be appropriate on their end,” he said.
De Jong would not say what the explosive was although he did emphasize it was small.
“It certainly wasn’t anything that would have caused mass destruction, but again, because it was unknown exactly what it was capable of doing, the explosives disposal unit did come by and pick it up,” he said.
Classes were cancelled for the day but students were allowed back later in the afternoon to access their lockers, according to Deneka Michaud, district spokeswoman. Classes were expected to resume as normal on Wednesday.
Students across the North Vancouver school district were already being drilled on evacuations earlier that day, Michaud said.
“All students and staff are safe. We appreciate student, staff and parent understanding and co-operation as students are released from school for the day,” read a message posted to the Handsworth website on Tuesday afternoon.
