Geraldine High evacuated

Phone threats made to schools around the country

The principal of the South Canterbury school that received a phone threat yesterday says while evacuation procedures went ‘‘extremely’’ well, he was disappointed an automatic alert system did not work properly.

Geraldine High School was one of several schools throughout the country evacuated, put into lockdown or shut down following the threat, and police say inquiries are under way in relation to threats at schools in Masterton, Kaikōura, Greymouth, Queenstown, Levin, Whanganui, Rolleston, Takaka, Geraldine, Dunstan, Ashburton and Palmerston North.

Simon Coleman, the school’s principal, who is also the Aoraki Secondary Principals’ Association chairman, said the school went

into lockdown about 12.30pm after it received a call from an unknown person making a threat towards the school.

‘‘We hit the lockdown button after we called the police when we were made aware of the threat,’’ Coleman said.

‘‘The police were on site fast, and we are quite lucky that our police station is not too far away from the school.’’

Once police arrived at the school, students and teachers were evacuated to Kennedy Park, a few metres from the school.

He said a system the school has in place where a message is sent to caregivers and parents alerting them of the situation, partly failed as some did not receive the message about the lockdown.

‘‘I got two emails and a few phone calls about it.

‘‘It’s disappointing, and we’ll be having a word with our IT company to make sure it does not happen again.’’

Coleman said some students had been walking back through Kennedy Park after visiting the town’s primary school before the school went into lockdown.

‘‘I went outside, located them and guided them inside. They were almost near school.’’ Coleman said after they were told by police it was not a real threat, the students were taken to the school hall where they were spoken to by him and the police.

The school had never received a threat like this before, but procedures were followed ‘‘extremely well’’ and some parents had taken their children home, he said. ‘‘It’s incredibly sad that it’s happened,’’ he said.

‘‘It creates huge stress on parents and young people. We have children as young as 11 at our school.’’

South Canterbury Primary School Principals’ Association president and Grantlea Downs School principal Stephen Fennessy said the safety of students was ‘‘the first priority’’.

‘‘Unfortunately people make these claims which is frustrating and annoying,’’ Fennessy said.

‘‘But we have policies and procedures in place for such situations.’’

He was not aware of any other threats made to schools in the Timaru urban area.

‘‘Police take threats of this nature extremely seriously and [are] making inquiries to determine the source of the calls,’’ a statement from police said.

At this stage police did not believe there was a safety risk.

Five North Island schools in Waikato, Thames and Gisborne received bomb threats on Tuesday and a Marlborough college received an apparently unrelated threat on Wednesday.

‘‘The police were on site fast, and we are quite lucky that our police station is not too far away from the school.’’ Simon Coleman

Geraldine High School principal