By KATHRYN BERMINGHAM AND ANEEKA SIMONIS
A PAKENHAM primary school was targeted in a second wave of bomb threats this week, as part of a hoax affecting schools around the world.
St Patrick’s Primary School activated evacuation procedures on the afternoon of Tuesday 2 February, after a threatening call was received.
Pakenham Sergeant Darren Shaw told the Pakenham News that the threat was delivered through an automated message in a phone call answered by a staff member at 12.05pm.
The message detailed that a bomb located on the school premises would be detonated in 30 minutes.
Staff immediately activated evacuation procedures, and children were ushered across Princes Highway onto the oval of Pakenham Secondary College.
Police blocked all entrances to the school while a total of eight units conducted a search.
Feverish parents were spotted running from their cars to pick up children from the evacuation zone, while others were seen flagging down police, concerned with traffic blockages along the highway.
Donna Singh, a mum of two students in Prep and Year 2, said she was in a rush to pick up her kids after learning the news of a threat.
“I was pretty scared at first. And then I had to try and find a car park and get over to them as quick as possible,” she explained.
“Several parents have been really upset. They’ve driven past and seen what’s happening or are getting alerts on Facebook when they are at work, or outside the area.”
Casey Merrigan, another parent of two students, praised the actions of staff in keeping the students calm.
“As a parent of two of the kids from St Pat’s – I have to say what an incredible job St Pat’s staff and the police did in managing to keep the students calm and maintaining procedures to keep all of our kids comfortable and safe,” she commented on Facebook.
The school was eventually given the all-clear and returned to their usual school day.
Nearby Kooweerup Primary School was also evacuated on Tuesday due to a similar threat, and Berwick Chase and Berwick Lodge primary schools activated emergency procedures following phone calls last Friday 29 January.
A number of other schools in the wider Melbourne area, interstate and internationally were reported to have received similar phone calls, but a Victoria Police spokesperson said last week that threats were being treated as “a hoax” and were not being treated as “terrorism related.”
