Nunavik school officials tight-lipped about Puvirnituq firearms scare

Iguarsivik School in Puvirnituq. The Kativik School Board isn’t saying much about a June 5 incident in which a student with a loaded rifle entered the school looking for another student. (FILE PHOTO)

A student carrying a loaded rifle entered a Nunavik school June 5 to look for another student, says a news release from the Kativik School Board.

Nobody was hurt during the incident, which unfolded that afternoon at the Iguarsivik secondary school in Puvirnituq, population about 1,700, on the Hudson Bay coast of Nunavik, the release said.

Police were immediately called, and school administrators followed safety procedures, a representative from the school board told Nunatsiaq News June 8.

“With this kind of incident, teachers and students would be told to stay in their classrooms, and to my understanding that’s what happened,” Jade Duchesneau Bernier said.

“We were lucky that no one was injured,” she said.

Nunavik school officials are offering little information and did not say if the student is a boy or a girl, or if any criminal charges will be laid.

The Kativik Regional Police Force could not be immediately reached for comment by press time.

“The Kativik School Board and the Iguarsivik School administration are working closely with the police and the community,” the June 5 news release said.

Police arrested the student outside the school, but no other information about the suspect is currently available because the matter is under investigation, Duchesneau Bernier said.

“School support measures will continue for several days or weeks at Iguarsivik School,” the release said.

Duchesneau Bernier said support measures include a debriefing for the students, which occurred on Friday.

And the board flew a psychologist into the community of about 1,600 on June 7, to provide psychological support to staff and students, Duchesneau Bernier added.

Even though school officials dealt with the situation in a timely and efficient manner, the school board will reassess its safety protocols in the wake of this incident, Duchesneau Bernier added.

That review will occur after the police investigation wraps up and the sequence of events leading up to the incident are clear, the school board representative said.

“For us, as a school board, the issue remains to balance security measures with keeping the school as a welcoming environment.”