A day after several private schools in Delhi and Noida received hoax bomb threat, a few schools reported a drop in attendance.
On Wednesday morning, students were evacuated from 131 schools in Delhi and seven in Noida even as fire tenders, bomb disposal squads and sniffer dogs were rushed to the premises to search for explosives. No suspicious object was found in the searches and the emails were found to be a hoax.
A senior police officer said the intention behind the emails was to create mass panic and disturb public order.
Mock drills
Jyoti Arora, principal of Mount Abu Public School in Rohini, said there was a 10-15% drop in attendance across classes. She said, “We revisited the framework to deal with such incidents and discussed preparedness. We also informed new teachers and students about the mock drills.”
Sudha Acharya, principal of ITL Public School in Dwarka, said that attendance had dropped from the usual 95-97% to 85% on Thursday. “We reiterated the evacuation SOP with all children, which is displayed at both ends of the school corridors. Every child is aware of which staircase to take to reach the playground in case of a threat situation like yesterday,” she added.
Fake news
In the wake of the incident, the Delhi police took cognisance of fake news circulating in WhatsApp groups. DCP (PRO) Suman Nalwa said, “We have received messages that many parents were having conversations regarding a suspicious object found inside a school on WhatsApp groups. Whenever you get such messages, you should first identify its source, and then forward it. Fake news spreads like wildfire.”
She also added that strict action would be taken against those who spread fake news.
