Dane Gibson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Dec 01/99) - Deadly school shootings have been on the rise throughout North America in the past few years.

Because of that, the Yellowknife Catholic School District's Crisis Response Team is preparing comprehensive plans with the RCMP to use in the event a violent situation occurs in a school here.

"The RCMP are making specific policies for every school in the district on how they're going to respond to a critical incident," said Yk Catholic Schools student support consultant, Liz Baile.

"What we're doing is working on training our staff to establish procedures so they can react quickly and efficiently in the off-chance that they are confronted by an assailant."

Baile herself experienced the devastating effects of a school shooting in Ottawa, which is one of the reasons she's especially committed to the project.

"When I was in school 25 years ago, an assailant came into our school and shot seven of my classmates. You never forget something like that," said Baile.

"It's unfortunate, but awful things can happen and with the increased violence these days, you need to be prepared. By having a system in place, we will save more lives if something does occur and that's worth all the time, money and training we're investing."

Over the next few months, each school will set up their own critical incident response plan. RCMP school liaison officer, Const. Denise Potvin, said schools have been assigned specific duties and will create their own plans.

"At this point, all Yellowknife schools have to come up with a contingency plan in the event an incident occurs so the RCMP can better respond," said Potvin.

"The biggest thing we need to know about a school besides a floor plan is where the teachers and administrators are going to bring the students if a shooting, or any situation where the students or teachers are at risk, occurs. That way, we can concentrate on where everyone is going to be."

Potvin said she expects the schools to submit their critical incident plans to the detachment over the next few months. She was quick to add that to her knowledge, a shooting or critical incident has never occurred in a Yellowknife school.

"This is a precautionary step. We just need to be prepared in case a situation occurs," said Potvin.