 News
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Schools prepared for alarm bells In the wake of last Wednesday’s rumours that the LTTE intends to target schools, the government has issued guidelines to be followed in the event of a terrorist attack and with parents too being asked to assist the school authorities in carrying out these precautionary measures. Schools in the Western Province, Kandy, Galle and Ratnapura were affected by wild rumours doing the rounds that the LTTE was planning to attack a school which kept many students away from school and worried parents rushing to school in fear and panic to remove to safety children who had already arrived at school. The baseless rumours were spread by anonymous calls made to schools and hospitals warning them of an impending attack. Police said four persons were arrested on charges of making these calls in an effort to spread panic and pandemonium among parents and children. The government was quick to reassure parents that all necessary measures were in place to safeguard schools from terrorist attacks.
The Education Ministry issued a new circular on Thursday detailing the role that principals, teachers and parents need to play to ensure the school and its surroundings were safeguarded. The government also announced it would provide telephones with the Caller Line Identification (CLI) facility to deal with mischief makers. (See box story). The police too have been tasked to assist the school authorities, parents and children in conducting awareness programmes on how best to handle such situations in the future. Leaflets, stickers, posters and bookmarks were issued for the benefit of the school authorities so that they would continue to be vigilant about possible threats to schools even if there were no rumours of impending attacks. As an immediate measure the Education Ministry together with the Defence Ministry conducted a training programme with the participation of 100 principals from the Western Province on ways and means of identifying suspicious persons, packages and unusual activities and the methods to be adopted to keep the relevant authorities informed and updated of such suspicions. The Chief Ministers of the provinces too summoned school heads and held similar meetings to educate them on how schools in the provinces could utilise to the optimum the resources available to them. Sabaragamuwa Province Chief Minister Maheepala Herath told The Sunday Times that Principals were advised to form vigilance committees comprising parents who would be available to assist the school in case of an emergency.
Royal College Principal Upali Gunasekera said the school authorities are taking all possible steps to ensure the security of students. He said five parents from each grade have been asked to come to school by six in the morning and assist in checking the bags of students as a precautionary measure. Other schools too have adopted such measures. Ratnapura Ferguson’s College principal B.U.R.D. Bandarawatta said parents have stepped in to assist the school to search the school premises and its surroundings for suspicious objects. “Some of the parents are in the police or medical or in other professions and this was very useful in situations like these,” Mrs. Bandarawatta said. She said the students too have been asked to be vigilant and not accept parcels or even a pen or a piece of paper from strangers and to check the position of the desks and chairs to see whether the items have been disturbed and to keep a lookout for any signs that might show that intruders had entered the classroom. School prefects have also been co-opted to play an important role in the new security plans for schools. The government circular states the provincial deputy directors of education would co-ordinate the necessary programmes with senior police officers of each area and school authorities. But despite the government action, not all parents were reassured and school attendance remained low throughout the rest of the week. “We cannot be sure anymore whether the children who leave home in the morning will return home safely. It is a very tense situation for both parents and children,” said R. Rajapakse a worried father whose son travels to school from Battaramulla every day. Preethika Nishamani whose daughter travels daily from Ragama to a school in Colombo said the threats were worrying but children also had to continue with their education as well.
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