A spray-painted bomb threat toward either St. Pat’s Catholic Church or St. Pat’s High School did not materialize, but Yellowknife Catholic Schools wasn’t taking any chances when the school re-opened on Thursday morning.
Yellowknifer obtained a copy of a letter sent to parents and guardians by the school board dated June 20, which stated that two separate cases of graffiti had been discovered around the city. In both cases, ‘St Pat’s’ was specifically named, but Simone Gessler, superintendent of YCS, stated in the letter that she didn’t know whether the target was the school or the church.
One of those messages was spray-painted in the tunnel underneath Old Airport Road near the west shore of Frame Lake. It read, “St. Pats (sic) will be bombed on June 21 2023.”
“We take all such incidents seriously and are working with the RCMP in assessing and addressing the situation,” Gessler stated.
It’s understood by Yellowknifer that the school was shut and locked as of 5 p.m. Tuesday evening with no access to the school for anyone until the resumption of classes Thursday morning. June 22 was the final scheduled day of classes for all YCS schools.
St. Pat’s High School wouldn’t have been open on Wednesday because of the National Indigenous Peoples Day holiday, but Gessler reassured parents that RCMP would be monitoring the site all day long. Police were also on-site when students went back to classes at the school on Thursday to make sure everything went off without any problems.
Johnnie Bowden, the acting principal at St. Pat’s High School, declined to comment on the situation at the school on Thursday and stated that YCS administration was taking the lead on the matter.
Yellowknifer reached out to Gessler early Thursday morning to get an update, but she did not respond as of press time Thursday evening.