The lockdown procedure of the Portage la Prairie School Division (PLPSD) was put to the test yesterday during a police manhunt, and Supt. Todd Cuddington says the protocol kept kids safe and was effective.

All Portage la Prairie schools went into full lockdown at 2:48 p.m., Tuesday, within three minutes of RCMP informing administration of the evolving situation of a man at large possibly yielding a weapon. Lockdowns on schools were lifted periodically as new information came from police alleviating concern in certain areas. The last lockdown on Fort la Reine School ended shortly after 6 p.m.

“I felt things were very smooth, starting from how the communication began with RCMP,” says Cuddington. “(Lockdowns) are something we drill and practice for. The principals, staff, students and all our support people handled everything well and did an outstanding job.”

One challenge administrators encountered during lockdown was accounting and securing all students who may not have been on school grounds due to field trips. Cuddington says buses were sent out to transport any students out in the community back to the division operations centre, near Yellowquill School, then those kids were moved into the school when it was safe to do so.

“We had a lot of variables, students and different trips around the community,” Cuddington explains. “That created some different things that we hadn't really accounted for, but those were handled well.”

PROCEDURE PROTOCOL

Cuddington says the school division can initiate a lockdown for a number of different reasons from weather, to a dangerous animal or, as was the case Tuesday, a suspect at large. There are different protocols depending on the severity of a situation. Schools went into full lockdown yesterday, which dictates locking all doors on entrance/exits to school to ensure no one can leave or enter the building, closing doors to classrooms, shutting all the blinds and securing/accounting for all kids.

ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEW

School Division administrators held a round table discussion this morning to review how yesterday's lockdown was handled, Cuddington says. The general indication was strong communication existed internally among division staff, and externally with RCMP, parents and local media throughout.

“We will always reflect on how things are handled and what we can do to improve them,” Cuddington notes. “There weren't really any things that went wrong, but there are things we could do different that might even better improve some things in regard to communication ... We did note through the discussion that we may update our policy as a result.”

“This was a real community effort,” continues Cuddington. “Supportive parents, calm staff and good communication with administrators and the end was, fortunately, the kids were safe. And that's the most important thing.”