Pupils and parents: a morning of fear, confusion and disconnection

Some people treated the bomb threat, which arrived by email shortly before 10 am at thousands of schools, as a routine evacuation drill, whilst others panicked; some headteachers were more cautious, choosing to send the pupils home, whilst others decided not to evacuate the school (“because the content of the email was truly surreal”, as one headteacher in Terni and another in Milan admitted); among the pupils, some, after an initial moment of disbelief, laughed it off, whilst others, surprisingly, found they felt lighter without their mobile phones constantly by their side – having left them in the classroom during the evacuation and been forced to disconnect.

Some teachers, in order not to alarm the pupils – especially the younger ones – told them it was an ‘evacuation drill’, whilst some headteachers took advantage of the situation to try to bring the school occupation to an end; however, in some cases, such as at the Minghetti High School in Bologna, they were unsuccessful. The controversial email, which arrived at around 6,000 schools across Italia at around 10 am this morning, sparked mixed reactions within school communities and hours of panic in parents’ chat groups, which were flooded with messages as people tried to understand what was happening. In some schools, there were moments of panic, shouting and confusion: for example, at the Giulio Cesare Classical High School in Rome, when a notification on the electronic register – sent simultaneously to pupils and teachers – ordered the immediate evacuation of the school.

“There was no explicit mention of a bomb threat in the message; it simply referred to an immediate evacuation for safety reasons,” says one student, but within moments the rumour had spread through the corridors. “At that point, panic set in, with some people talking about bombs going off and others saying pupils had been injured. Every possible rumour began to circulate.” To make matters worse, the evacuation order came during break time, when the pupils were already out of their classrooms. “We didn’t know how to handle an emergency like that,” explains a teacher. Despite the initial commotion and the fact that there were around 1,500 pupils in the school, the evacuation was completed very quickly. And this scenario was repeated, with few variations, in many schools. In other schools across Italy, however, the evacuation took place in a much calmer atmosphere. “The children were told it was an evacuation drill; they’re used to doing them,” says Ines, a Year 5 teacher in Milan.

For many young people, too, it was an unusual day, away from their screens, without being able to check notifications, messages and social media. “She’s feeling a sense of unease – I’d almost say alarm – more about her mobile than about the bomb. She asked me: ‘What am I supposed to do? When can I get it back?’” says the mum of 12-year-old Emma. For some, it even sparked a sense of guilt for having left their smartphone unattended: “I wanted to go back in to get it, but they stopped me. What if I can’t find it?”, admits 14-year-old Ettore.

At the end of a hectic day, one thing is certain: tomorrow, school will resume as normal. Meanwhile, this afternoon, several dozen students took part in a protest organised by the student organisation OSA and the USB trade union outside the Prefecture of Rome. “We believe that the bomb threats at schools are part of a strategy of tension. It is no coincidence that this is happening again today, at a time of great unrest. We will continue our campaign against those who want to stop us,” chanted the participants.