Police were investigating Monday after dozens of teenagers, some armed with chains and baseball bats, descended on an anglophone Gatineau high school Friday.
Philemon Wright students Tyrone White, left, and Jessica Courville say there have been anglophone-francophone tensions between their school and the nearby Mont-Bleu secondary school for years.
(CBC)
Students at Philemon Wright high school blamed the incident on ongoing tension and conflict with students at a nearby francophone school.
No one was hurt in the lunchtime incident, but Philemon Wright was locked down for half an hour and one of its windows was found broken, said Gatineau police spokesman Roger Cloutier.
About 50 teens ran into the bushes when police arrived, he added.
Two of the teens had managed to get into the school.
Cloutier said police are often called to schoolyard incidents, but rarely ones that involve that many teenagers.
"Right now, everything's under investigation to know the reason why [these kids] were there," he added.
Students blame French-English tension
Students at Philemon Wright such as Jessica Courville blamed the incident on students from the nearby Mont-Bleu francophone secondary school who had Friday off.
"It's been going on for years that they've been coming here, just because we speak English and we're in Quebec," she said.
The Western Quebec School Board issued a statement late Monday afternoon that the incident was isolated and they are investigating.
Earlier that day, the school principal told students not to provoke the students who attend Mont-Bleu.
Mont-Bleu principal Simon Leclerc said the two schools are setting up a collaborative student project to prevent future incidents.
(CBC)
Meanwhile, the principal of Mont-Bleu, Simon Leclerc, said if Mont-Bleu students are found to have been responsible, they will be punished.
He added that the two schools will also be trying a complementary approach.
"Right now, our student body councils will be meeting next Wednesday so we can set up some collaborative project so that we can prevent things like this from happening in the future," he said.
Police said they will be investigating internet messages sent between the students at both schools.
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