Woman expected to face charges after incident at New Brunswick elementary school

A sign outside Riverview East School is pictured in New Brunswick. (Alana Pickrell/CTV Atlantic)

A 34-year-old woman is expected to face charges for allegedly uttering threats towards a New Brunswick elementary school Wednesday morning.

Codiac RCMP Staff Sergeant Nick Arbour says police first received a call at 7:45 a.m. when a parent of one of the students made threats towards Riverview East School.

As a result, police were dispatched to the area and the school was placed into a hold-and-secure.

The Anglophone East School District says a hold-and-secure indicates that movement inside the building continues as usual, but no one is permitted to enter or exit the building.

Arbour says the suspect was arrested just before 9:30 a.m. away from school property.

However, after numerous photos were posted online that showed multiple officers with guns outside of the school, parents say they were given misinformation surrounding the entire situation.

A New Brunswick RCMP car is pictured outside Riverview East School on Oct. 9, 2024. (Alana Pickrell/CTV Atlantic)

“When I did see the posts on Facebook, I called and they said, ‘oh no, it’s a drill’ and I said, ‘well, it’s not on the calendar that there’s a drill this month.’ [I was told] ‘No, everything is fine and dandy here, nothing wrong’ and then I get up and look on Facebook again and there’s more posts of blocking every entrance with guns and this and that, well that’s not a drill at an elementary school,” said Ryan Saboe, who has two children who attend Riverview East School.

Saboe says he dropped his children off after the bell had already rang and at that point he only saw one cop car still on the property.

“I didn’t think anything was out of the ordinary because there’s normally cops, at least a couple times of week, but when I’m walking up there and I’m being told that everything’s fine, when they knew very well that there was already something going on, I should have been told to turn around, take my kids home, rather than lock them in a school,” he said.

• The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App

CTV News reached out to the Anglophone East School District about the parents who are claiming that they were told that it was just a drill. CTV News was told the school district “can’t speak to that speculation.”

Director of communications, Stephanie Patterson, said that all established communication and safety protocols were followed and that three different messages went out to parents, including one at 8:51 a.m. that said they were in a hold-and-secure, one at 9:25 a.m. that said the hold-and-secure had been lifted and a final one at 11:12 a.m. that addressed the situation.

In part, the email from superintendent Randolph MacLEAN said “at all times students and staff were safe; we routinely practice for events such as these. Once the RCMP arrived on site we collaborated closely and the officers began their work. Several officers remained on site for the duration of the operation. As is protocol, a message was sent from the Central District Office indicating that the school was on Hold & Secure.”

Saboe, along with a handful of other parents who were waiting outside the school Wednesday morning, said despite the fact that they were being told the incident was resolved, they would be pulling their kids out and taking them home for the rest of the day.

For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.