2 Winnipeg high schools closed Monday due to threats
Oak Park deemed safe for re-entry following search of school, investigation still happening at Elmwood
Two Winnipeg high schools — Elmwood and Oak Park — cancelled classes Monday after receiving threats.
Police have not said whether the threats, both emailed to the schools on Sunday evening, are believed to be linked.
Elmwood is part of the Winnipeg School Division and located in the neighbourhood of the same name. Oak Park is in the Charleswood neighbourhood and part of the Pembina Trails School Division.
By noon, Oak Park had been fully searched by police and deemed safe for re-entry, Pembina Trails superintendent Shelley Amos said in an email to CBC News.
"There will be a police presence at Oak Park tomorrow to support the school in a return to regular classes," she said, and a clinical support team will be on site to provide assistance to staff and students who need it.
Winnipeg School Division superintendent Matt Henderson wouldn't disclose the nature of the threat, but said police were immediately contacted and Elmwood High School was closed out of an abundance of caution.
"We just want to make sure that everybody's safe and make sure that the police can come and do a bit of an investigation before we open up the doors again," he said Monday morning.
Like at Oak Park, the search at Elmwood turned up nothing and by the early afternoon, staff were allowed back into the building. Classes will be on again for Tuesday, he said.
The closure at Elmwood also impacted the Munroe Early Childhood Education Centre, which operates out of the school.
"So lots of folks are trying to make alternative arrangements," Henderson said.
"When these threats are made, it really upsets people's lives. We're in the business of teaching and learning, and now there's a day without teaching and learning."
With files from Meaghan Ketcheson