By Greg Fry

High school lockdown leads to student arrest in Merritt

Jun 15, 2018 | 12:49 PM

MERRITT, B.C. — Students and staff received a scare in Merritt this morning.

Just before 11:00 a.m., Merritt Secondary School was locked down after a staff member reported that they believed they saw a weapon being placed in a student’s backpack.

“The principal of the school contacted me,” says School District 58 Assistant Superintendent Jameel Aziz. “Immediately, we made the decision to put the school into lockdown and called the RCMP. We also locked down the school board office which is right across the street from the high school and put the nearby elementary school — Merritt Central Elementary — into a hold and secure, brought all the kids inside and locked all of our outside doors.”

He says it turns out a student at the high school had a BB gun “that looked very much like a handgun and was taken into custody by the RCMP.”

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Cpl. Brock Hedrick of Merritt RCMP says the BB gun could easily have been mistaken for the genuine article.

“To me, it was a pellet gun, but it did bear a resemblance. Obviously, we have to err on the side of caution so that’s why we acted the way we did,” said Hedrick, who noted a large knife was seized as well. “We will be sending in a report to Crown counsel. The male is still in custody here at the Merritt detachment. The B.C. Prosecution Service will assess the evidence and determine any criminal charges are required.”

“At this time it does not appear that he had anything nefarious planned. It just appears as though he had these items in his possession.”

Aziz confirms the suspect was a student at the high school and will also be facing school district disciplinary action.

He notes incidents like these are upsetting for all involved, noting grief and support councillors have been dispatched.

“We’ve done our best to communicate out, but certainly securing all of our buildings was our first priority and we will be sending some information home with students at the end of the school day just so parents have a clear idea of what transpired and they don’t have to go down the path of guessing around facts and fiction.”

Aziz says incidents like these seem to be more commonplace and says parents who have children with BB guns or replica items need to help educate their kids.

“Conversations about where they should be — and quite frankly, schools is not where they should be — probably would be more helpful in helping all schools in this country not having to deal with these incidents,” said Aziz.

Hedrick concurs.

“Students shouldn’t be bringing anything that could be perceived as a weapon — especially anything that could be perceived as a handgun — to school. We obviously don’t recommend that or we might have a respond similar to what we had today,” said Hedrick.