Reported firearm at B.C. high school was actually a stick: RCMP

An RCMP cruiser is pictured on Vancouver Island in June 2022 in this file photo. (CTV News)

A firearms report that triggered a large police presence at a high school on Vancouver Island Thursday turned out to be a prop students were using for a project, according to authorities.

The North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP says it received a report of a man pointing a firearm in Kin Park, next to Quw’utsun Secondary School, around 9:15 a.m.

As a result, the school was put on hold and secure, and officers contained the park and swept the school.

It’s standard practice for police to treat firearms reports or bomb threats as real until proven otherwise. But thankfully in this case, Mounties say there was a much more innocent explanation.

“Students from the high school later came forward, admitting that they were filming a project at school and while using a wooden stick, they mimicked the act of shooting,” the RCMP wrote in a news release, and reiterated there were no firearms involved in the incident.

Mounties thanked the students for coming forward to clarify the situation.