An altercation between two youths at the Genesis Place Recreation Centre fieldhouse resulted in an evacuation of part of the facility Jan. 15 after one used mace on the other.
“The youth who discharged what we believe to be bear spray took off immediately from our facility into a waiting vehicle, and then we treated the other youth with first aid, as well as calling EMS to attend the scene, as well as RCMP,” said manager Brad Anderson. “With this, or any other type of assault or incident in the facility, we immediately called for emergency services.”
Within a few minutes, he said, RCMP had taken the lead on the investigation and started interviewing witnesses, as well as the victim of the attack. As a result, according to Anderson, members were able to charge the youth suspected of being responsible with assault and mischief.
Meanwhile, the area was immediately shut down in an effort to reduce the level of irritation resulting from the spray and to decontaminate the space, he added.
“The priority for us is really to make sure that our space is safe and we’re able to return to normal,” Anderson said. “We don’t want to expose children or seniors, or those with medical conditions, to the irritant that can be found in bear spray.”
The youth who suffered the attack was not transported from the facility, he noted, and was back at school the next day. According to Anderson, the most important thing when it comes to an attack with mace is flushing the affected skin to clean away the irritant.
“Beyond getting charged, that youth will be trespassed from our facility for a length of time that’s still yet to be determined,” he said. “Our facility does take these things very seriously, and we want to make sure there’s an example set that this type of behaviour has no place within our facility – the consequences for even a first-time offense of this nature are pretty severe.”
Currently, Genesis Place does not check bags or use metal detectors, and it’s not a practice Anderson wants to see implemented – with more than 1.5 million visitors each year, he said, it would be “almost impossible” to maintain that kind of level of security.
Instead, he said, staff regularly patrol the hallways of the facility, and security guards from Airdrie Alarm pass through during the week for quick checks. Additionally, Anderson noted, teachers from nearby Bert Church High School will make appearances, as well.
“Just having their presence around is sometimes really helpful for our facility because they know a lot of the youth here and they have those relationships built, as well,” he said.
“If we do see increasing levels of incidents or violence, there are other measures we could explore in the future…but we feel strongly that we can be more proactive by working our schools and our community resource officer to make sure that sort of thing isn’t the case.”
