Editorial: School closures hit too close to home

Families with students who attend school in Iroquois and Kemptville received a chilling reminder of the growing epidemic of violence against schools on October 3 when schools in those two communities were closed due to threats. Two schools in Iroquois and up to eight schools in Kemptville were closed out of what the OPP called “an abundance of caution.” Kemptville’s St. Michael Catholic High School was the subject of further threats of violence against students and staff at the school on October 4, so the school was closed again. And on October 7, the school board kept that school closed for yet another day.

Seaway District High School, and Iroquois Public School, reopened last Friday, but all was not normal. Anecdotally, we know that many families kept their school-aged children home from school that day. A lightning rod of fear to all families in the area had already done its damage.

The closure incidents remain under active investigation by the police. As such, few details about the threats have been made public so as not to compromise the investigation. That said, even the threat of a violent event occurring at a school strips away the innocence and perceived safety of our educational institutions.

Violence directed towards in schools in Canada is nowhere near the levels seen in the United States of America. School shootings and other violent attacks are a near-daily news item in the US, shocking the world but not many Americans who refuse to address the lack of responsible firearms ownership and the growing mental health crisis in that country. In fact, there have been fewer than 20 serious violent mass-casualty events in Canadian schools in 150 years. There were 50 mass-casualty shootings in US schools in September 2024 alone, killing 48 people and wounding 190 – the fourth-lowest totals so far this year.

Even the threat of something cataclysmic in a local school is enough to chill a community. Those threats are growing. Across Canada, there has been a rise in swatting, where a serious threat of violence is reported to authorities, often with the origin masked to blame others for the threat. This year, swatting has occurred to schools in Delta, British Columbia, as well as to schools in Chatham and Waterloo.

Local school boards for their part are providing resources to help students who may struggle with the sudden fear and anxiety of a violent action in their school. Increased vigilance and some further improved security measures may help alleviate some of those fears. It is our hope that this never amounts to anything more than a hoax or cruel prank. This threat, hits too close to home.