Listen to this article
Estimated 5 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
Some parents in the northern Alberta town of Sexsmith are upset about what they say was poor communication from the local school district regarding a school gun threat last week, which ended in a 13-year-old boy being arrested and a gun confiscated from his home.
Bobby Nicholl, who has a son in Grade 7 at Sexsmith Secondary School, said he would have left his son at home on Friday morning had he known the severity of the threat.
“We went up and dropped the kids off at the school, and we noticed there was an RCMP pickup there. Nothing really was out of the ordinary,” Nicholl said.
RCMP had received a complaint late on June 4 stating that “a student was threatening firearm-related violence toward students at a school in Sexsmith,” Cpl. Matthew Howell, a spokesperson for Alberta RCMP, told CBC News.
The teen was arrested the next day following an RCMP investigation that included student interviews, Howell said. A gun was confiscated from the home and charges were laid for uttering threats, he added.
Sexsmith is located about 465 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, near the city of Grande Prairie, Alta.
‘We should have been told’
Peace Wapiti Public School Division vice-superintendent Darren Young wrote in a June 5 email to parents that the district had been made “aware of a potential safety concern” and was investigating with local law enforcement. The letter didn’t share specifics, stating the matter was still under review.
“Based on the information available at this time, there is no imminent risk to the safety of our students, staff, or school community,” Young wrote in the email, which was obtained by CBC News.
Chrystal Widsten was not happy about how the June 4 incident was handled by the school district. (Eagle Andersen/CBC)
Parent Chrystal Widsten said her daughter was texting updates from the school on Friday but wasn’t aware of the scope of the situation until RCMP released an update on Monday.
“I feel as though we should have been told as parents beforehand that there’s potentially … a dangerous situation and give the parents the choice to allow their children to go into the school or not,” Widsten said.
Nicholl echoed her concern.
“[I was] flabbergasted and shocked that a threat of this severity happened in our little town and we knew nothing about it,” Nicholl said.
The school division released another letter to parents on Tuesday, which said exterior doors will be locked during the day at Sexsmith Secondary as well as the town’s elementary school for the remainder of the school year
“We are maintaining a proactive, highly cautious approach to ensure our buildings remain secure,” the letter read.
The letter added that “at no time was there an imminent threat to the safety of our students or staff.” The district declined an interview request and directed CBC News to its Tuesday letter.
However, Nicholl still thinks more should have been done to explain the situation to parents.
“We just can’t blow it off like this. Feels like it was totally swept under the rug and it’s wrong. They took absolutely the wrong approach to it,” Nicholl said.
Nicholl said his son is staying home for the final days of class, excluding exams.
An increase in school threats
Howell said the original tip was crucial to allow RCMP to get ahead of the potential threat. .
“With that evaluation, we were able to find the suspect and avoid what could have been a catastrophe,” Howell said.
On Feb. 10, a school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., claimed the lives of eight people, including five students and an education assistant who were fatally shot on the grounds of the school. Tumbler Ridge is 210 kilometres east of Sexsmith.
According to Alberta RCMP, school threats have been up in the province this year.
As of June 10, there were 58 threats reported across Alberta in 2026. In 2025, there were 61 during the entire year.
The RCMP’s Western Alberta District alone has already seen a 56 per cent increase in school threats in 2026 compared to the entirety of 2025, according to an email from Alberta RCMP.
RCMP arrested a youth in the town of Peace River, Alta., on May 7 who owned a TikTok account that “implied threats of a possible school attack,” according to an RCMP release. Two weeks later, an RCMP news release said officers were investigating a different social media threat linked to a school in High Prairie, Alta.