Closures at UPEI and Holland College smooth, say officials - Action News
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PEI

Closures at UPEI and Holland College smooth, say officials

School-aged children weren't the only ones placed under evacuation order the University of Prince Edward Island and Holland College were also closed on Wednesday due to a potential bomb scare which was later deemed not credible.

'You don't expect it to happen on little old P.E.I.'

Students at UPEI leaving after campus was closed (Natalia Goodwin/CBC )

School-aged children weren't the only ones placed under evacuation order the University of Prince Edward Island and Holland College were also closed on Wednesday due to a potential bomb scare which was later deemed not credible.

Both schools say they spoke with police and public school officials before deciding to close for the day, which happened shortly after grade school students were sent home.

"We really were using extra precautionary measures and erring on the side of caution so that's why we decided to close the campus," said Krista Grant, director of marketing and communications for UPEI.

Grant said the residences and dining centre remained open.

'You don't expect it to happen on little old P.E.I.'

The closure did put some students, like Caelan Laybolt, a bit on edge.

UPEI students Samantha Daley and Caelan Laybolt were both nervous during the school closure. ( Natalia Goodwin/CBC)

"It's like one of those things that you don't you don't expect it to happen on little old P.E.I.," she said.

Samantha Daley agreed with that statement

"It's a little shocking to happen here."

Police on campus at Holland College after potential bomb threat was called. (Stephanie Brown/CBC )

Holland College closure also smooth

Sandy MacDonald, VP of Academic and Applied Research at Holland College said the situation there was similar, the closure went very smoothly and calmly.

"All the students were joking and laughing because they were saying it was a beautiful day, a day off school they were kind of cool about it," he said.

"We didn't want to panic anyone we didn't set off the alarm bells as we would if there was a fire for example and I went through the residence and through the buildings myself along with the other administrative team and people were dismissing in an orderly fashion in the Charlottetown centre and that's what I was told was happening in the other centres as well."

Both UPEI and Holland College said that they will be doing a post-mortem in the coming days to go over how the situation was handled. UPEI and Holland College are planning to open as normal Thursday.

With files from Stephanie Brown