WILLIAMSTOWN – Char-Lan District High School and Williamstown Public School had to be placed in a partial lockdown Tuesday after a woman was spotted nearby with a gun.
Upper Canada District School Board Superintendent of Schools, David Coombs, tells Cornwall Newswatch the “hold and secure” lasted a little over 30 minutes.
“We secure the outside doors and keep the kids inside until the O.P.P. call us and say everything is safe,” Coombs said.
There are a total of 800 students at both schools, which are across the road from each other on County Road 17, just east of downtown Williamstown. “It’s almost like a bit of a campus,” he said. Char-Lan is Grade 7 to 12 school while Williamstown Public is kindergarden to Grade 6.
O.P.P. Const. Joel Doiron says a woman from Williamstown, 42, was arrested shortly after the school lockdown and a pellet gun was seized.
She is charged with mischief over $5,000, careless use of a firearm and possession of a dangerous weapon.
He says there was extensive damage to the windows and screens of buildings at the nearby Williamstown fair grounds.
Doirin says it doesn’t appear the woman was intending to go to the schools but happened to be in the area (on John Street) when someone spotted her with the firearm.
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