Hundreds of students didn’t show up to class at Garden City Collegiate on Tuesday morning, despite reassurances from police and the school board that a shooting threat discovered last Friday was unfounded.

Families at the northwest Winnipeg school were informed on Friday that graffiti found in a bathroom that afternoon included a shooting threat against the Grade 9-12 secondary for Tuesday.

Winnipeg police launched an investigation and officers told the Seven Oaks School Division over the long-weekend that there was no risk to public safety based on their investigation, superintendent Tony Kreml told CBC News.

On Monday families were told classes would not be cancelled on Tuesday, and the school would be open with additional resources.

However, most students still chose not to attend. 

“When I checked this morning, absenteeism is about two-thirds …  in a school of 1,400,” Kreml said. 

While police didn’t find the threat valid, it was unsettling for families and students, the superintendent said.

He attributes the number of students missing class in part to the threat being discovered against the backdrop of a mass shooting at a high school and home in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., that left eight people dead last week. 

“I do believe that people do need to take some time and, in a sense, recalibrate before getting to their normal activities,” Kreml said. 

“I do have full confidence both in the school, the staff [and] the support systems that we have in place that students will start coming back to school.”

Threats taken ‘very seriously’: division

Garden City Collegiate has a school resource officer assigned on normal days. 

However, for the remainder of the week there will be an increased presence to “reassure that, in fact, Garden City Collegiate and our schools in the city are safe spaces” Kreml said. 

He believes that will be useful to help restore the confidence of parents on the school’s role in keeping students safe, but he acknowledges further communication will also be needed to strengthen trust. 

“My message would be that as we get threats like this, we treat them very seriously,” Kreml said.

“We get that information into to the hands of Winnipeg police. We co-operate with them, support their investigation efforts and we don’t make any further decisions with regards to school openings or closures until we have those facts on the table with us.”

Kreml says it is always a concern that a threat at one school can encourage similar ones at different facilities. 

Police continue to investigate the threat at Garden City Collegiate, one of at least five schools in Winnipeg that have received a threat so far in February. 

Winnipeg police have told CBC they are looking into an online threat on Friday made against a school in the 400 block of Parr Street, near Mountain Avenue in the city’s North End.

Police arrested a youth after threats were made involving a school in the 400 block of Flora Avenue, near Salter Street, on Feb. 3.

On Feb. 4, Bernie Wolfe elementary school in the Transcona area was evacuated due to a threat just as classes were about to begin.

Days later, a shooting threat posted on Facebook forced St. John’s High School to cancel classes on Feb. 9.