What needs to change with the handling of bomb threats in schools?

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

The Hard Shoulder, with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman, on Newstalk, with Kiya.

Shane Colman (0:08)

Now, school principals are seeking new protocols from Gardaí and government to ensure a calm and coordinated response to future threats like the one that happened on Wednesday when there was widespread bomb scares. The director of the National Association of Principals and Deputies, Paul Crone, joins us now. Paul, just before we come to you, I just want to play what the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Helen McEntee, said to Anton Savage on News Talk Breakfast this morning. Anton asked what schools should do if there is a bomb threat? Have a listen.

Helen McEntee (0:40)

I think first and foremost, when you're not used to a situation like that, and thankfully this is not a natural occurrence, this is not something that happens on a regular basis, people will always err on the side of caution and want to take precaution.

SPEAKER_4 (0:50)

If you are in a position, if you are a school principal or you're a manager of a multinational or you're an editor in a news station and you get an email that says you have 30 minutes, you don't have time to quotes engage with the Gardaí, you need to know what to do and how to assess it.

Helen McEntee (1:02)

So the immediate advice is to ring 999 and to ring the Gardaí, yes, that is the information that I've been given. However, if there is something different or more that we need to do, Gardaí are absolutely assessing that now and we'll be engaging with those schools, but also making sure that there's clear guidance.

Shane Colman (1:17)

Okay, what do you make of that advice, Paul?

Paul Crone (1:20)

Well, I think it is good advice in many ways, in that we do need to engage with the Gardaí. The Gardaí are the experts, they're the security personnel and schools need advice on what to do in situations.

I think Anton did make a reasonable point as to what happens if you have a very short period of time, and that's why we need to have very clear guidance as to what we should do. And she did mention erring on the side of caution, which I suppose every principal would do to keep everybody safe. But I mean, in some situations where there is an isolated attempt to cause disruption and it's a one-off situation, call the Gardaí and the Gardaí will be able to respond. In yesterday's situation where there was a widespread hoax, the number of people trying to contact the Gardaí on the 999 line was excessive, and of course that clogs up the 999 line.

So the triangulation of that is very important, and that happened yesterday morning between the Minister for Education and the Minister for Justice, the Department of Education and the Gardaí, and they decided reasonably early, about half 10 yesterday morning, that this was a hoax. So it was a very low threat level. So what we need to do is put our heads together and see, is there a system by which an emergency message could be got out to schools to say, we've assessed this, it's low threat, so there's no need to react. And that kind of frees up the need for principals waiting 20 minutes on the line to get an answer from the emergency services.

Shane Colman (3:05)

And do you believe there is such a system that can be developed?

Paul Crone (3:09)

I believe there can be. Yes, I believe there can be such a system. I mean, we live in a modern day communication era. There could be some sort of a schools app, there could be some sort of a text messaging service that is available for extreme events that would only be used in the event of emergencies. I mean, we have very clear protocols in relation to weather events. We know what to do in schools, if it's an orange or red or yellow warning. And those protocols are very clear. We're less clear apart from ringing 999 if there's an event like this.

Shane Colman (3:48)

Yeah, so I'm just trying to put myself in the shoes of a principal, a really difficult situation. And what happened the other day on Wednesday?

Like, I'm sure instinctively, they all knew this was almost certainly a hoax. But they're also thinking, are my first responsibility is the safety and security of the children under my care. We're in locus, apparently. Absolutely. So how do the protocols kind of deal with that, do you think?

Paul Crone (4:19)

Well, I know our Deputy Director Rachel O'Connor did a huge amount. There was a similar hoax about three weeks ago and it was a less number of schools. So she contacted jurisdictions in schools in the UK and she got access to advice and protocol documents that exist even within our own Gardaí for businesses.