Council moves to reassure parents and carers after Scalloway scare
Headteacher Morag Fox has been praised for the school’s response to the incident
SHETLAND Islands Council says it takes Friday’s incident of an explosive device being taken into Scalloway Primary School “very seriously”.
The council’s head of children services Helen Budge praised headteacher Morag Fox for following all the correct procedure from the moment she realised that this could potentially become a dangerous situation.
The primary school was closed and evacuated after a member of staff had brought in what was described as a ‘practice smoke and flash device’ found at a local beach.
The Scalloway Health Centre along with the Hame Fae Hame nursery were outside the cordoned off area and were evacuated in a “phased” manner.
The school opened again on Monday morning after an explosive ordnance disposal team from the Faslane naval base destroyed the object in a controlled explosion on Sunday morning.
Chair of the council’s education and families committee and local councillor Davie Sandison said he wanted to praise headteacher Fox for the way she handled a very difficult situation.
“In the terms of the actual process in arriving at the decision to evacuate the school, I was very pleased to see and hear how that was done,” he said.
“In terms of how the situation was handled it was really good, and I am pleased about it.”
He added that he was well aware of the alarm and upset the ‘incident’ has created in the local community and expressed his sympathies to everybody who has been affected by this.
Meanwhile, Budge said she wanted to reassure parents and carers that children were safe in local schools.
She said the council was taking “the incident very seriously” but did not want to expand what that exactly means and what lessons could be learned from it.
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Shetland News understands the council will carry out an internal investigation into how such a situation could have arisen. However, this has now become a “staffing matter”.
Police chief inspector Stuart Clemenson meanwhile reminded people to be careful when coming across suspect objects along the coastline, and if folk were unsure they should call the coastguard on the 999 emergency numbe
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