Arrests over bomb hoax

Schoolboys in strife after ‘prank’ forces evacuation

POLICE have arrested three 14-year-old boys over two hoax bomb threats at Drysdale’s St Ignatius College.

Police described the incident — which saw about 1200 students evacuated from the Bellarine school on Tuesday — as “a childish prank gone wrong”.

The three boys were interviewed at Bellarine police station on Thursday night and released pending summons to attend court at a later date.

Police confirmed all three boys go to school and live in Belmont, Ocean Grove and Point Lonsdale, respectively.

The Geelong Advertiser understands one of the three may attend a school in Geelong.

According to police, the boys will also “face disciplinary action from the school”.

St Ignatius College principal Michael Exton told the Addy the Drysdale school received the first bomb threat phone call at 4.30pm on Tues- day. The school immediately notified police, who established the bomb threat was a hoax.

With support from police, the school scheduled an evacuation drill for noon on Wednesday.

“We then received another (bomb threat) call at 11.30am (Wednesday). We immediately contacted police, and with police support we ran an evacuation straight away,” Mr Exton said.

This essentially brought forward the planned evacuation by half an hour.

Mr Exton confirmed police searched the school before about 1200 students and 100 staff returned to the buildings.

The school communicated with parents about the evacuation via text message. Mr Exton said the school wanted to “keep parents in the picture about our actions”.

Mr Exton would not comment on whether any of the ar- rested boys were St Ignatius students.

“As a school we are co-operating with police,” he said.

Mr Exton addressed students and staff at an assembly on Thursday, saying: “I commended the staff and students on the way they handled it.”

Describing the feeling at St Ignatius, Mr Exton said: “Obviously there were some concerns it (the hoax) was a disruption and that this happened, and saddened by the fact hoax calls were made.”

Mr Exton said the school treated the incident very seriously. “We want students to have a safe and secure environment at school,” he said.

A Victoria Police spokesperson said sometimes “kids don’t understand the consequences of their actions”.

“This should serve as a reminder to all about the severity of making hoax calls and the serious ramifications involved,” the spokesperson said.