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6 Independent & Free Press,Thursday, September 23, 2010 OPINION False alarm For roughly half an hour Tuesday morning Christ the King Secondary School was engulfed in confusion. Calls to this newspaper indicated "dozens" of police officers were at the Guelph Street school with many students and staff standing outside the building. Rumours were flying fast and furious-- the school was in lockdown; someone was spotted with a knife. About an hour after "the incident" started Halton Police confirmed that, yes, the school was in lockdown for a short period and that a former 16-year-old male student had been arrested for threatening a CtK student with what was believed to be a knife. However, it wasn't until early Wednesday morning-- at roughly 5 a.m.-- Halton Police issued a press release stating "the incident did not occur as orginally reported". In fact police determined there was never any danger to CtK students and that the suspect was not even at the school at the time of the incident. A teen was arrested but released without charges. Sgt. Brian Carr of Halton Police said, "It was miscommunication and Facebook conversation (that) got a little out of control and people overreacted. There's no pinpointing where it started or where it ended." To be sure CtK principal Dave DeSantis and his staff acted properly and decisively in ordering a lockdown to protect both staff and students and Halton Police officers, as they should, responded. However, as the famous movie line goes, "What we have here is a failure to communicate." It's disconcerting to think that student Facebook banter can set off the chain of events that occurred Tuesday and that it took Halton Police 18 hours to issue a release to declare the incident a `false alarm'. We're thankful this was a `non-event', but knowing that sooner would have been beneficial to the general public. 905-873-0301 Publisher: Ken Nugent General manager: Steve Foreman (sforeman@independentfreepress.com) Retail advertising manager: Cindi Campbell (ccampbell@independentfreepress.com) Managing editor: John McGhie (jmcghie@independentfreepress.com) Distribution manager: Nancy Geissler (ngeissler@independentfreepress.com) Classifieds Kristie Pells (classified@independentfreepress.com) Accounting Rose Marie Gauthier Editorial Cynthia Gamble: News editor (cgamble@independentfreepress.com) Ted Brown: Photography (tbrown@independentfreepress.com) Lisa Tallyn: Staff writer (ltallyn@independentfreepress.com) Eamonn Maher: Staff writer/sports (emaher@independentfreepress.com) WEB POLL RESULTS Premier Dalton McGuinty says school boards should consider allowing students to use cellphones in the classroom to access online information. Is this a good idea? · Yes (10%) · No (89%) · Don't know (1%) Steve Nease Go to www.independentfreepress.com Letters to the editor Arnott's effort to be commended Dear editor, In reply to Mr. Paul Madonia's letter in Aug 16 issue of The Independent & Free Press, I too was concerned about the impending closure of the Georgetown licensing office and was of like mind with regard to a "local long-term business" being forced to close. I spoke with the employees of the office as soon as I heard and found out that none of them had very good prospects of acquiring alternative employment in town of equal value or benefit to them. I immediately contacted Mr. Ted Arnott, our local Conservative MPP and enquired of him what, if anything, was being done. I quoted Mr. McGuinty's oft-repeated mantra of "creating jobs" and observed that in this case the opposite appeared to be true. Mr. Arnott informed me that he would indeed follow up on this issue. He did in fact, true to his word, do so. He questioned the Minister of Government Services in the House, Mr. Harinder Takhar, and was assured that the matter would be dealt with. I also spoke to Mr. Arnott in person regarding this issue in the Georgetown Market Place some time later. Mr. Arnott was both attentive and showed obvious concern. It is my understanding that the previous licence office owner declined to sign a contract with the Government of Ontario because the Liberal government was desirous of increasing the services provided by this business with no increase in compensation or benefit. His responsibility would increase immensely and, after the Liberals ehealth debacle, who can blame him for wanting to shy away from that nest of alligators. Suffice it to say, Mr. Arnott's intervention has resulted in the continued employment of said employees and indeed I must reiterate Mr. Madonia's final comment, "Bravo to our local MPP" though in a far more congratulatory vein than previously expressed. I have found that Mr. Arnott is both very personable and very approachable having had contact with him on previous occasions. He is also very attentive to local issues. I must add the previous office operator provided excellent service to the people of Georgetown for many years and I wish him well wherever the future may take him. John Tatham, Georgetown Boorish behaviour Dear editor, My family attended the recent Georgetown Fall Fair, really looking forward to watching the demolition derby. Our family, along with several other families, arrived early to sit in the bleachers. Latecomers to the show ruined the evening for us by standing in front of us. The announcer and police officers asked several times for these people to sit. To those few that sat, thank you! As for the rest of you, did you lose your hearing as well as ability to tell time or do you just simply have no respect? We ended up leaving as we literally could see nothing but your backsides. How was the derby? We in the bleachers would like to know! To the one individual in particular who began swearing at us I ask, how do we explain your behaviour to our children? We had no idea there were so many rude and disrespectful people in our town. T. Maljevac, Georgetown Letters to the editor policy Letters must include an address and daytime telephone number. Anonymous letters will not be published. Letters should not exceed 150 words and may be edited for content and/or length. Publication is not guaranteed. E-mail: jmcghie@independentfreepress.com Mail or drop off: Independent & Free Press, 280 Guelph St., Unit 29, Georgetown, ON., L7G 4B1. The Independent & Free Press The Independent & Free Press is published Tuesday and Thursday and is one of several Metroland Media Group Ltd. community newspapers. Editorial and advertising content of The Independent & Free Press is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.