Parents spent about two hours waiting outside Ross Sheppard High School in Edmonton on Friday after a weapons complaint prompted a lockdown. Police later said the weapon was an imitation gun, and reported no injuries or arrests. Bahadir Koprulu, whose daughter is in Grade 9 at the school, said he and his wife were terrified for their child’s safety.

Koprulu and his wife received messages from the school notifying them of the lockdown. The messages said their daughter was safe and that “everyone is quiet and staying out of sight.” Koprulu said the situation brought to mind scenes he had seen in media and a recent shooting in his family’s home country.

“It’s just like in the movies or in the news,” Koprulu said. “A few months ago, there was a school shooting back home in Turkiye. We were really scared.”

The lockdown began at about 12:30 p.m. Koprulu hurried to the school, where police cruisers and officers wearing tactical gear surrounded the building. Parents were not allowed on school grounds, leaving those who arrived outside to watch and wait. He said his daughter texted him during the lockdown to say she was OK, but the message did not remove his worry.

Koprulu said neither police nor the school offered details about what was happening while the lockdown continued. He recalled police telling him that everyone was safe and that parents should not be worried, but said the reassurance did not settle his concerns.

“The police told me everyone is safe, like we shouldn’t be worried,” Koprulu said. “But how can you not be worried?”

When his daughter finally walked out after the lockdown ended, Koprulu felt overwhelmed with relief. “I don’t like to cry, but I was about to cry when I saw her,” he said.

After the incident, police said the weapon that led to the lockdown had been found to be an imitation gun. They reported no injuries and no arrests. Edmonton Public Schools said it activated its emergency response three times during the event and sent an email with additional information “following the incident.” Koprulu said he learned from news reports that the gun was fake before receiving information from the school.

Criminologist Dan Jones, who works at Edmonton’s NorQuest College, said communication with parents is a key part of responding to emergencies. Information needs to help families avoid panic and keep them from arriving in ways that could interfere with police access to a school, he said.

“How do we communicate with parents so parents aren’t panicking, or so parents aren’t coming and then interfering with the police’s ability to get into the institution,” Jones said. He added that information must be adjusted as an event unfolds.

“In those circumstances, you have to be fluid with your information,” Jones said. “You don’t want to harm investigative integrity, but at the same time, you need that safety and secure feeling from those parents.”

On Monday, Alberta Education and Childcare Minister Demetrios Nicolaides told CTV News Edmonton that communication during emergencies was one area identified for improvement in a recent review of school safety protocols. He said emergency preparedness involves planning for an emergency, preventing it and responding while it is happening, while reopening afterward can receive less attention.

“When you think about emergency preparedness, you’re planning for the actual emergency, preventing it, and dealing with it when it actually occurs,” Nicolaides said. “The reopening afterwards sometimes can be a little bit of an afterthought.”

The review is intended to inform new provincial guidelines for school security. It was prompted by the school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., which killed eight students in February. Under the new regulations, school boards must create an emergency framework for schools to develop their own critical emergency plans. Those plans must cover threat identification, staff training, post-incident support, and drills and exercises.

Jones said people often do not like discussing violence in schools, but he considers lockdown drills essential, much like fire drills, so students, staff and parents know what to do in a worst-case scenario. He said the issue has been discussed since the Columbine shooting and that multiple school shootings have occurred in the United States and Canada, with Tumbler Ridge the most recent.

“We’ve been talking about this since Columbine, and multiple school shootings have happened in the U.S. and Canada, with Tumbler Ridge being the most recent,” Jones said. “It’s crappy that these students have to go through this, but it’s the reality. And if we don’t face the reality, we’re going to see another tragedy.”

Nicolaides said the province will provide $20 million to school divisions for safety-related infrastructure upgrades, with another $2 million set aside for staff training. School boards have until Jan. 4 to create their emergency management framework, and schools have until April 5 to put individual plans in place. Early childhood operators must follow the same guidelines on the same schedule. The report included files from CTV News Edmonton’s Chelan Skulski.

Based on reporting by CTV News Edmonton.