A police investigation closed Assumption College on Tuesday night and forced the postponement of the Brant County high school boys volleyball finals.

Late Tuesday, Brantford police said on Twitter that a suspect is in custody and the high school is reopened.

Shortly after 5 p.m., with the junior game between St. John’s College and Brantford Collegiate Institute well underway, an announcement was made on the speaker system telling all staff, students and visitors that they needed to go to the gymnasium.

The message was then repeated and people were told it was not a test.

After everyone in the school had assembled in the gym, staff at the school quickly secured all exits. Then, people were told to find safe places to remain until police arrived.

During the wait, Brantford police Const. Dana Sims, Assumption’s resource officer who is also a coach with the BCI team, said there was a threat to the school but that everyone was safe in the gym.

When Sims asked if there were any questions, one spectator asked about the threat. Sims said that information could not be released.

While waiting for officers to arrive, people were calm and busy letting those outside of the school know they were safe.

During one conversation, an Assumption teacher said that earlier in the day a student had caused an issue and said they would return later in the day. Whether that was reason for the police investigation could not be confirmed.

After about 30 minutes of waiting, four police officers arrived in the gym and set up a plan to clear out people.

Exiting the building, the full extent of the police presence could be seen as about 10 cruisers were parked on the east side of the building alone.

It was not known how many more cruisers and officers were on the scene.

As for Tuesday’s junior game, St. John’s was ahead of BCI 2-0 in the best-of-five match and in front 11-8 early in the third set.

Originally, the best-of-three junior and senior championship series were scheduled to take place Tuesday, Thursday and, if necessary, Friday at ACS.

Volleyball convenor Lisa Graham said the plan now will be to finish the junior game on Thursday and play Game 1 of the senior series between BCI and Paris District High School after the junior game is completed. The junior game will start at 4 p.m. and the senior game will follow.

Graham also said the second game of each series will be played Friday at ACS with the juniors at 4 p.m. and the seniors to follow, at about 5:30 p.m.

If any Game 3s are needed, it was not known late Tuesday when they would be played.

The referees could not say with certainty what the protocol is to resume the junior game.

bsmiley@postmedia.com

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