Bomb threats at schools: security protocol changes – no evacuations without a genuine risk. New emails today

The spate of bomb alerts that swept through over 6,000 Italian schools yesterday is prompting the government to bring order to security procedures. The aim is to prevent a simple email, sent simultaneously to thousands of recipients, from paralysing entire schools, triggering evacuations and mobilising the police even in the absence of a genuine threat. The new policy is clear: there will be no automatic evacuation based on a generic threat. Specific evidence making the risk credible will be required before pupils, teachers and staff are evacuated from buildings.

This is the principle underpinning the joint operational protocol that will be finalised this afternoon during the technical meeting of the Interministerial Committee for the Security of the Republic (CISR). The provisions are already in force and apply to all the authorities involved in handling reports.

This change in approach comes in the wake of the new wave of threats which has caused alarm in schools, from Milan to Rome and as far as Palermo. A mass email announced the presence of explosive devices, triggering security checks and, in several cases, the evacuation of pupils. Checks carried out by police and Carabinieri bomb disposal experts proved negative.

The key point of the protocol is to distinguish between the threat and its actual credibility. The mere receipt of a threatening message – even when it is sent simultaneously to thousands of schools or other public buildings – will not be considered sufficient grounds for ordering an evacuation. Further concrete evidence will be required to establish that a dangerous situation exists.

This is not, however, an absolute ban on evacuation. The protocol gives prefects the power to order the evacuation of buildings when specific and concrete circumstances arise that constitute a genuine risk.