With students preparing to return to school, police are working to prevent the continuation of gang activity at ADSS and 8th Avenue Learning Centre.
Gangs called “AFN” and “NBH” are being blamed for more than 30 assaults last school year including one where the victim was seriously injured and taken by ambulance to hospital in March.
Port Alberni RCMP Constable Beth O’Connor told regional district directors that police are working with at-risk youth to put an end to the assaults, which were often video recorded and posted online, and victims subjected to humiliation and harassment.
She said many of the youth are from outside the Alberni Valley, and are not active participants in the local school system.
“These youth live relatively independantly,” she said. “They’re found at all hours of the day and night intoxicated in local parks. They can be missing from their group homes or family homes for days at a time. Some of these youth are from other communities: Nanaimo or the west coast. They’re couch surfing or living very close to the streets.”
O’Connor said many of the individuals at the centre of the assaults have been involved in other serious crimes, so the threat to students is “absolutely real”.
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