Students and staff at Liverpool Regional High School were under a hold and secure order for a short time on Wednesday morning. (Rick Conrad)

An incident at Liverpool Regional High School on Wednesday forced officials to secure the school and students.

Parents got an email at 10:50 a.m. telling them the school was in a “precautionary hold and secure”.

“Everyone is safe and this measure has been taken out of an abundance of caution, due to a potential safety concern in the community,” the email said.

“During the hold and secure classes will continue as normal, access to the building will be limited, and students will remain inside the school for breaks.”

The email told parents that the hold and secure would remain in place until “police confirm normal activities can resume”.

The hold and secure order was lifted around lunchtime, according to a spokeswoman with the South Shore Regional Centre for Education, who also provided QCCR with a copy of the email.

She told QCCR to contact the RCMP for further details. 

RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Carlie McCann said police are still investigating and would likely provide an update in the next few days.

“I can’t provide any further information at this time,” she said Thursday.

Students heard on Wednesday that another student brought a pellet pistol to school.

“I think some guy flashed a pellet gun at someone,” Logan Sarty, a Grade 12 student at LRHS, said outside the school on Thursday. “That’s the main thing I’ve been hearing around.”

Sarty said everybody appeared OK afterward, but there was speculation in the halls about the alleged incident.

“A lot of people thought that it shouldn’t be hold and secure because there was a lot of talk of it being a rumour.” 

Another, unrelated incident occurred at South Queens Middle School on Wednesday. A school board spokeswoman said that was “more common”, as staff dealt with a disruptive student.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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Photo Ed Halverson

A downed power line briefly trapped students inside a bus Monday afternoon.

Shortly after 3:00pm a bus carrying 23 students on route 122 from Liverpool Regional High School, South Queens Middle School and John C Wickwire Academy, encountered the power line on Barss Street in Liverpool.

Captain John Long of the Liverpool Fire Department explains what led to the downed line.

“Another vehicle had hit the pole, or rubbed the pole and pulled the mast off the house. The bus came along and didn’t notice the low-hanging wire and so it got tangled up in it,”said Long. “As soon as they realized what they were in they stopped the bus and called for help.”

South Shore Regional Centre for Education officials contacted the parents of the 23 students on board to make them aware of the situation.

Nova Scotia Power, Liverpool Fire Department, and RCMP worked together to remove the line from the bus.

The ordeal lasted about an hour but with no air conditioning and temperatures approaching 30 degrees in the mid-afternoon, the only relief students had from the heat was to open the windows.

Liverpool Fire Department provided students with bottled water when they were able to exit the bus.

Some parents arrived to pick up their children from the incident site.

SSRCE Communications Coordinator Ashley Gallant says students were checked out by EHS before being released.

Gallant credits the quick actions of the bus driver for ensuring the safety of everyone on the bus.

“Really have to give some recognition to the bus driver who immediately recognized that something wasn’t right and stopped, according to procedures and contacted Nova Scotia Power, as we should,” said Gallant. “So it’s really the best outcome here. Everybody was safe and no injuries.”

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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