Less than an hour after Semiahmoo Secondary was locked down due to an intruder alert Friday, classes returned to normal.
A Code-Yellow alert was issued and nine police vehicles – marked and unmarked – surrounded the 1785 148 St. school around 12:30 p.m. March 18 after a janitor reported spotting two intruders, school district spokesperson Doug Strachan confirmed.
Students were made to remain in their classrooms and school access was restricted to the building’s main entrance until the strangers – believed to be two senior students from a school outside the district – were located, around 1:15 p.m.
“They were apparently there to visit another student,” Strachan said. “The school principal and police have talked to the boys about the inappropriateness of their coming to the school and entering the school without authorization.”
Strachan noted the ordeal could have been averted if the visitors had simply checked in at the office, as district policy mandates.
“We don’t want people wandering about the school who aren’t supposed to be there,” he said.
A handful of students in hallways at the time of the lockdown were instructed to leave, and students just arriving for classes were instructed to stay outside, while black-vested emergency response team officers and a police dog combed the building.
Grade 12 student Caleb Robinson, who was with a dozen students waiting outside the main entrance, said there had been some confusion among students because an initial Code Yellow alert had been downgraded to a Code Green – and then a few minutes later went back to a Code Yellow again.
“I’m pretty sure Code Yellow mean there is an intruder in the school,” he said.
The steps taken are “the usual precautions” in such circumstances, Strachan told Peace Arch News shortly after the alert was issued.
“They just want to locate them and ask them to leave. It’s not a case of somebody was seen with a weapon.
“We expect it is a routine matter.”
Code Yellow is the middle of three alert levels. When activated, access to and movements within the school are restricted “to assist the search,” Strachan said.
– with files from Alex Browne