CANTON — Threats involving a ‘multitude of violent acts” by one Canton Central School District student against another Monday afternoon on a bus ride home resulted in a lockdown and sweep of the school as well as a police investigation.
Village Police and St. Lawrence County sheriff’s deputies made a show of numbers at the school Tuesday morning as deputies investigated what school district Superintendent Ronald P. Burke said were threats of “violent actions using a multitude of violent acts,” involving “devices.”
The school was locked down on Monday afternoon and a sweep was done to make sure there was nothing in the building that could present a danger.
“We ended up having staff stationed at all the doors that the students would normally use (Tuesday morning) and that’s how we allowed them in,” Mr. Burke said.
The purpose was to show to parents and students that the school was taking the threat seriously, responding to it and “to provide that sense that everything is going to be OK.”
“It was not a bomb threat, but it would have been geared directly at an individual as opposed to some kind of mass casualty kind of thing,” Mr. Burke told the Times on Tuesday morning. “The minute you throw something beyond a fist, there is a potential for collateral harm done to other people, whether that be a knife or a firearm or any other type of device.” He said a student overheard the threat on the bus and reported it to a parent who reported it to the school, and he credited them for acting.
“It didn’t happen on the school grounds but it is still an extension of the school, which certainly makes it our issue on a number of different fronts,” Mr. Burke said.
He declined to specify what “device” was threatened to be used against the other student, but said the St. Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department was wrapping up its investigation into the matter and was uncertain if it would lead to criminal charges.
An email to Sheriff Kevin M. Wells seeking additional information was not immediately answered.
“But I can say that there has been no device found,” Mr. Burke said. “So again, when we talk about feeling comfortable in terms of the safety of our students in our school, based upon everything that the police have been able to ascertain at this point and time, they along with us are comfortable that school is operating as normal.”
He said the school will be exercising its code of conduct when handling the disciplinary measures of the student accused of making the threat, something the school is not taking lightly.
Moreover, he said while there was some vagueness in his original release to parents Monday night, there is the need to know and the desire to know.
“We all want to know every aspect of a situation, especially when it comes to our child’s safety and, as a parent. I certainly understand that,” he said. “However there is also the balance between being a dad and being a superintendent.
“I have to make sure that I am following all of our regulations and laws regarding student privacy,” he said. “It became pretty apparent quickly, as we were trying to get information out, I had information that the student’s name was already being used on social media, so I need to make sure I am protecting the 1,300 other students that I have and I also have the obligation to protect the one student who has been accused. There is that balance act.”
