School chaos: Boy quizzed
A 13-year-old Scarborough boy has been questioned following a series of hoax calls to Scarborough schools.
North Yorkshire Police arrested a boy on Tuesday afternoon on suspicion of communicating false information in connection with “calls made to a school in Scarborough”.
This week both Graham School and Pindar School received hoax emails.
Graham School was closed with “immediate effect” on Tuesday morning after students had arrived at the site.
The closure of Scarborough’s largest secondary school followed a second email sent to staff, and students were evacuated for the second time. On
Monday morning (May 15), the first email was sent to staff at Graham School which led to all 1,050 students being evacuated to the school field.
But they were allowed to re-enter the school buildings an hour later following a police search.
In a message the school sent to parents that morning, a spokesperson said: “emails were sent to staff at the school to say a bomb would goof fat the cafeteria.
“Both upper and lower sites were evacuated for safety and police attended at both sites to undertake searches.
“They have given the all clear for the return to the school buildings.”
North Yorkshire Police confirmed they were called to the school at 8.40am to reports of “suspicious calls”.
A spokesperson for North Yorkshire County Council confirmed: “The incident is currently being investigated by police who established that the call was a hoax.”
The following morning (Tuesday May 16) students walked through the school gates only for parents to receive a second message at 9.15 am saying the school will be closing “with immediate effect” following “yesterday’s incident”.
The text message read :“Arrangements have been made for Y 11 exam students to undertake their examinations at Scalby School. Students will be kept safe until parents can collect or make other arrangements.
“We will update you during the course of the day.”
Police officers were called at 8 am that morning and a second thorough search was carried out throughout the day as it was revealed a second “suspicious call” was made that morning.
Early in the afternoon on Tuesday, Helen McEvoy, head teacher at Graham School said :“The safety of our students and our staff is paramount and the school will remain closed until further notice to enable a thorough search of all the school buildings. We wish to thank our students for their responsible conduct throughout this incident and to parents for their co-operation.
“David Read, the head teacher at Scalby School has been very supportive in accommodating and making arrangements for our students sitting their GCSEs so that their public examination is not disrupted.
“Our primary concern is that the school can get back to the day-to-day business of teaching and learning and that students, staff and parents are confident that all safety procedures have been followed.”
It was revealed by North Yorkshire Police that Pindar School, in Eastfield, also received a hoax email on Tuesday morning.
A North Yorkshire Police spokesperson said: “Police arrested a 13-year-old boy from Scarborough this afternoon (Tuesday May 16)on suspicion of communicating false information, in connection with calls made to a school in Scarborough.”
The police are investigating all the hoaxes as part of one investigation.
Graham School reopened yesterday morning.
Parents have voiced their opinions following the commotion which left many worrying for the safety of both students and staff.
One parent defended the school, saying: “Surely all Graham staff would want to keep all children safe.
“Maybe the school is going by whatever intelligence they are getting. I have no facts and from reading this neither does anyone else.
“My son’ s at home safe, that’ s all I care about and I hope all the staff are too, the teachers that look after our children five days a week.”
While others criticised the school’s handling of the situation. One parent posted: “They should have closed the school yesterday and done a proper search then. I’m sorry but I think the way the school have dealt with it is shocking.”
Another parent said her daughter was a “nervous wreck”. She added: “I agree better to be safe than sorry but surely it could have been handled better to avoid this happening to our children.”