The police have laid charges against the youth taken into custody in Maidstone yesterday afternoon.
The youth was arrested after Maidstone High School and Ratushniak Elementary School went into a state of hold and secure, due to an alleged threat. He cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
According to Constable Ryan Reid with the Maidstone RCMP, the youth was not arrested on school grounds, and he will be headed to Saskatchewan court in Lloydminster on June 17.
An official summation of the charges was released on Tuesday. He has been charged with one count of uttering threats, one count of public mischief, one count of possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, and one count of common nuisance.
Reid said the situation at the school was controlled and safe during the hold and secure, and police remained on scene to make sure there were no other issues after the hold and secure concluded.
“(The) schools were great, everything worked out well,” said Reid.
“This is what everyone trains for.”
106.1 The Goat also reached Heather Artstall, a bus driver with the Northwest School Division who was present the morning of the incident, and had her busload of students re-directed to the Petro-Canada gas station. According to Artstall, she took things in stride.
“I just looked at them (the students) and said ‘we’re going to go on a field trip’”.
Artstall said she went to the gas station, which was later filled with eight buses in total from the school division, with two teachers on hand as well. She also said the high school students in her bus were being informed of what was going on inside the secured schools by their siblings, and social media.
Reid could not comment on what exact measures were taken inside the school during the incident, but did say students were centralized.
The hold and secure status of the schools was later lifted around 12:15 p.m. on Tuesday morning. An explanation for why the alleged threat was made against the schools remains unclear.