P.E.I. private schools not notified about evacuations
Some private schools are feeling a bit forgotten after Wednesday's evacuation of Island schools. Montessori School of Charlottetown, which just opened in September, and Immanuel Christian School heard about the situation through social media, parents and even some former students.
"Because we're a new private school, there was a bit of confusion as to whose accountability we fall under, the Charlottetown city police, the RCMP or the school board," said executive director for Montessori Wraychel Horne.
Rob MacDonald, principal at Immanuel Christian School, says he understands, but hopes it doesn't happen again.
"I wasn't all that surprised, there's 56 public schools on P.E.I. and it's easy to make one call to the Public Schools Branch and the private schools sometimes fly below the radar so I wasn't extremely surprised, but it was definitely something I wanted to get fixed up."
Decided to evacuate
MacDonald decided to evacuate the school and got his pupils to their safe space and home with parents quickly. Later in the afternoon his school was searched, as was Grace Christian School and all of the public schools on the Island.
Grace Christian School was contacted by two Charlottetown police officers who came to the school, they then decided to follow suit, said principal Jason Biech.
"We take lead from basically from the RCMP or the city police and then watch what the public system is doing and then we will follow what they are doing, and if they are going to cancel school, we're definitely going to cancel school, as well," he said. "We follow the same protocols when there are storm closures, as well."
Missed for bomb check
Montessori was missed again when it came to checks for a potential bomb. Instead, Horne and security from their building management at the National Bank Tower did a sweep of the school. Horne says she was on the phone most of Thursday trying to get the situation fixed for next time — she thought she had done all she needed to be notified in an emergency.
"I think throughout the licensing process we filled out all necessary documentation, we created all of our policies, we had our procedures in place ... so with the preparation to become a licensed operating school we had done our due diligence and everyone knew of our existence," she said.
Jurisdiction of Charlottetown police
Charlottetown police say that the private schools do fall under their jurisdiction, but they aren't responsible for notifying them unless that specific school is a target. Deputy Chief Gary McGuigan says what happened is that officers instead went to Island Montessori Academy, an early learning centre. McGuigan said the situation with the private schools was just one thing police learned from Wednesday's situation.
"We've gained some valuable experience, we've identified some areas where we can do better. And on an ongoing basis, we've contacted those people, we're in the process of gathering up their information and bringing them into the fold," he said.
"It's something that we may look at again is talking with the private schools and and finding out who is going to be in charge if we run into a situation like this and how we would handle that."
Officials from P.E.I.'s Public Schools Branch said that the private schools are not currently part of their safety plan, but they would be open to having a discussion around how they should be handled in the future.
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