Suspicious packages and bomb threats at schools: They do happen

The thought of dealing with a suspicious package or bomb threat may not be the most common incident a school will have to tackle.

But as two recent incidents in Melbourne and Canberra have shown, these incidents do occur across Australia. And schools need to have a set of policies and procedures in place to ensure they can properly respond.

Even if a bomb threat turns out to be a hoax (which research in the US says is the case 90% of the time), such incidents can be highly disruptive and if not handled properly can reflect poorly on a school. The FBI has also found that one in 20 bomb threats in the US were targeted at schools. And bombs do often explode in schools in the US.

Schools first of all need to ensure that they have a Crisis Management Team (CMT) in place - whose members are delegated various responsibilities in the case of a suspicious package being located or threat being received. The head of the team (most likely the school principal) will take the lead in deciding how to respond to such an incident and will allocate responsibilities to others in the team. Schools need to ensure they have an alternate CMT leader and that there is a member who coordinates internal communications to staff and students, and another who coordinates external communications to parents/carers and possibly the media.

In the case of a suspicious package being found, a school should have a clearly defined set of procedures that all staff should be trained to follow.

The basic steps for staff to follow include:

• Do not panic.
• Do not disturb the package or pass it around.
• Cordon off the immediate area.
• Notify the Principal or head of the Crisis Management Team (CMT).
• Contact emergency services.
• Remain calm and wait for help to arrive.

Schools need to ensure they follow their evacuation procedures and lockdown procedures in the event of a suspicious package being found.

The CMT in response will follow a Crisis Management Plan that will dictate how it will alert the authorities, set up an incident support team, brief staff, communicate with students and parents and respond to the possible traumatic effects of such an incident on students and staff.

Schools need to have a well formulated set of procedures in how they respond to bomb threats, which can be highly disruptive to the operation of a school. In the case of a threat, the school's CMT will assess the seriousness of the threat and how the school should respond.

There should be documented steps in place to illustrate how staff should respond to a threat, such as:

• Recording the place and time indicated in the threat.
• Recording the description of the bomb in the threat.
• Documenting the reasons for the threat.
• Noting any specific targets mentioned in the threat.

Even if a threat turns out to be prank, the response of a school could determine whether or not there will be any residual damage.