KAMLOOPS — The death of 13-year-old Latisha Reimer in Abbotsford has sent shock waves throughout school across B.C. It has many schools in Kamloops securing and monitoring their premises much more closely.
“Obviously things are heightened right now with the incident that took place at Abbotsford Secondary School,” says South Kamloops Secondary Principal Walt Kirschner. “One thing we do as a school and as a district is we want to ensure safety for our students and our staff.”
Since the random stabbing on Tuesday, South Kamloops Secondary has locked every entrance to the school, except the main entrance.
“It enhances our ability to know who’s coming and going from the building, particularly during instructional time where we’ll all in our classroom,” says Kirschner. “That door’s the closest one to the main office, so it gives our staff an opportunity to see what that looks like. We’re a huge campus with almost 1,000 students, students that are in portables during instructional time, so that kind of security is necessary.”
School District 73 Superintendent Alison Sidow says that security will continue across the district in the coming weeks until things settle down.
“We are hypervigilant at this time,” says Sidow. “All of the protocols have been initiated, which includes how we manage those who come and go in our buildings. Access is limited to our sites, and staff are initiating protocols in classrooms to ensure all students are safe.”
These kinds of security measures have been in place since January 2013 when the district revamped its policies in partnership with the rcmp.
During a time like this, students may be feeling anxious that a similar event could happen at their school. But the district says staff are trained to recognize that.
“We have counselling support and we have protocols we use if, in fact, we have students who are experience heightened levels of anxiety. The most important thing we do for young people who are experience stress or trauma is to connect them to a really caring adult in their life.”
