Mum's anger at Carluke hoax bomb call response

An angry mother has accused education authorities of putting her child's life at risk by NOT evacuating Carluke High School following a bomb hoax call last Tuesday.
Carluke High SchoolCarluke High School
Carluke High School

Carluke Primary was evacuated after a hoax call last month, but on Tuesday afternoon the decision was taken to keep the pupils of the large secondary in school.

Texts were sent at 3.30pm to parents, notifying them of the call and the decision.

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The mother is angry that the authorities deemed it a hoax and decided it was unnecessary to evacuate the children.

The mother accepts that it is a large school, and that the authorities did not want to cause any panic, but she insisted:

“It is my child’s life they are risking in this.

“They don’t have the right to play games.

“Unless they are 100 per cent sure it is a hoax, and the only way they can be 100 per cent sure is to do a search of the buildings - but I don’t think it is their decision.“

She had phoned the council to protest at the decision being made by the authorities and parents being notified afterwards, but got nowhere.

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A spokesperson for South Lanarkshire Council told the Gazette that two schools had been involved in last Tuesday’s incident, Carluke High and Calderside in Blantyre.

Tony McDaid, head of education services at South Lanarkshire Council, said: “The safety of our pupils is paramount and all decisions taken are made on this premise.

“The decision not to evacuate the schools was based on the specialist knowledge that the police are in possession of and their advice that this was not a credible threat.“

“This information was considered alongside the potential risks associated with moving large groups of young people to another location.”

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And he said that both schools had been searched by police and staff, and nothing suspicious had been found.

“We informed parents by text of the hoax call and the decision not to evacuate as soon as we were in a position to do so, but our immediate priority was to manage the situation in the school,” said Mr McDaid.

*The following day, June 15, the police announced that a 15-year-old boy from the Glasgow area had been arrested in connection with a number of hoax bomb threats in Clydebank and Lanarkshire.

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