For two days this week, police officers walked the halls of Orchard Park Secondary School after a message left on a school computer threatened gun violence would take place there.
Officers patrolled the school yesterday and today, said Sergeant Terri-Lynn Collings.
Both days passed without incident.
The threat was uncovered by a student in a school computer lab on Nov. 7, said Orchard Park principal Marco Barzetti.
Barzetti said someone had created a folder on a desktop titled Open Me. Inside the folder was a threat stating violence would occur on Nov. 12, but it didn’t offer any specifics about motive, nor did it target any staff or students.
Police and school-board information-technology officials were contacted immediately to determine the source of the threat.
School-board superintendent Pam Reinholdt said rumours began circulating among students that a shooting would happen during yesterday’s Remembrance Day assemblies, a day earlier than the threat had indicated. The new information forced the school to request police presence on both days.
“You assume these things are pranks, but you have to react,” said vice-principal Jan Southall. “None of us is so naive as to think that things like this don’t happen.”
School and board officials decided to notify parents via automated telephone of the new threat yesterday morning, but they say the high volume of calls from concerned parents delayed the warning calls by several hours.
Students at the Stoney Creek school said many of their classmates decided to stay home today. Ross Moffat, a Grade 12 student, said there were only seven people in his first class and six people in his second.
“Someone who does something like this — it doesn’t seem right,” he said.
So far, police don’t have any leads about a suspect.
“It ultimately could be any student,” Collings said. “This was done on a computer on a guest account, so it could be very difficult to track.”
Barzetti said it will be school as usual tomorrow while the police investigation continues.

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