When the school receptionist received a bomb threat this past Monday at around midday, at the Amity International School in Erasmia, protocols including an assessment of the threat's credibility and a search of the building, by local law enforcement, were allegedly only conducted a couple of hours later.
According to a teacher who pleaded for anonymity for fear of retribution, "Students were only directed towards the football field about an hour after the call and told to wait. No information was provided to students until after an announcement by the principal was made, leaving many students dumbfounded while they waited. I understand that many children were busy with exams but why wasn't anyone informed about exactly what was happening? Why were the kids not evacuated immediately and why was the bomb squad not called in? When the police arrived, I just saw them standing around. What if there was really a bomb? This kind of thing can’t be taken lightly!”
Shockingly, some kids who had some extra art and sports classes were apparently allowed to continue their classes and end their school day normally.
Parents
In addition, many highly shaken parents approached the Laudium Sun, sharply criticizing the school for waiting so long to make them aware that their children had been under a potential threat.
Concerned parent, Shushila Morgan fumed that it was completely irresponsible of the school not to inform the parents about the bomb scare as soon as they got the call and shockingly to still leave some learners in the classrooms. “The least the school could have done is inform the parents and guardians so that we could have also taken measures and helped the school with the evacuation process. Either way, I feel that the soccer field was too close to the school and was not at a safe distance away from the supposed bomb," fumed Shushila.
The stunned mother added, “We only received an official message from the school at around 4:30pm. Many of our children didn’t even realise the gravity of the situation thinking that it was just a practice drill. An Amity Grade 12 learner who pleaded for anonymity told the Laudium Sun that she was now afraid to go to school even for her exams, after she had learned about the bomb scare.
"How can the school expect us to concentrate on our exams when we all are just stressing about the incident? Even though the Erasmia police came to the school I still don't feel safe. Are the local police trained for this kind of scenario? Shouldn't a bomb squad have been dispatched to the school to thoroughly search for any foreign devices?” the learner asked.
School principal Sonia Kotze told the Laudium Sun that all protocols were followed. School adviser, Anil Singh said “after deliberation between staff and school management, it was decided to evacuate the children and call in the police. Our main concern was to not cause a state of panic amongst the children and that is why we did not tell them about the bomb threat. We thought that the police would handle the rest.”
Constable Moloto told the Laudium Sun that police were dispatched to the school and conducted a search. Nothing sinister was found, he concluded, declining to comment further. He added that police were investigating the circumstances surrounding a hoax bomb threat at the school.
Amity International School in Erasmia received a bomb threat on Monday at around noon.
Principal Sonia Kotze, said all protocols were followed.
Irate parent, Shushila Morgan said parents should have been informed about the bomb scare immediately.