A Montreal High School Has Been Evacuated After A 'Bomb Threat'
The school is closed for the day.
White Montreal police cars parked near a brick building. Right: A black police van is parked outside an open door to Monseigneur-Richard High School, while officers stand outside.
A Verdun school was evacuated on Tuesday morning after Montreal police were notified of a false bomb threat around 8:45 a.m. Students at Monseigneur-Richard High School were sent home after classes had already started, as a precaution.
"We received a 911 call that one youth had allegedly texted another from the school, making a bad joke. He wrote, 'Don't come to school because there's going to be an explosive device.' The recipient was scared and management was notified. It was taken very seriously, so they called 911," said Montreal police spokesperson Véronique Comtois.
"When the suspect, who is a minor, saw that there was a police response, he went to school staff to admit it was just a joke."
The suspect was arrested and brought to the investigation center to meet the investigators. Montreal police still enforced the evacuation as a preventative measure.
"We waited outside for an hour before sending everyone home," one teacher told Narcity Quebec.
The police have carried out a search of the premises, both inside and outside, to confirm that the threat was a hoax.
"They didn't find anything. Everything was fine, but they still decided to keep the school closed given the 911 call and the fact that people had already been evacuated," said Comtois.