No students or staffers were injured in this morning's mass evacuation at schools across the country following several bomb scares that came in via email shortly before 8 am.
This is according to Minister of Education, Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, who addressed the situation at a press conference on Friday afternoon. She assured that the protocols were being followed and safety checks were being made by police and the fire service.
She said all schools were not dismissed, only those who were directly threatened.
At the time of the press conference at midday, the minister said 55 schools received direct threats "but that number is changing we go along because, via email, a number of the threats came and were blocked by the spam."
She said eight threats were received in Tobago with threats going directly to the police in schools in North East and Caroni districts. She said the 83 schools in the Caroni District and the 57 in the North Eastern District were dismissed and parents were asked to pick up their children. She said schools, where students have been outside for over an hour due to pending safety checks, were also asked to dismiss. She assures that principals will be working with the Ministry and keeping them informed.
She said the email circulating on social media could be the one sent to schools as they closely resemble. She said the Ministry of Education's IT department is working with the TTPS to determine the source of the threat.
Questioned if the source was determined to be students, the minister simply warned that the threat "is a criminal offence."
In a release earlier this morning, the Ministry of Education condemned the threat along with an attack on a staffer at the Belmont Secondary School.
"The Ministry of Education strongly condemns these reckless actions, which destabilize our nation’s schools and interrupt the education of our students. Anyone with relevant information is asked to contact the TTPS forthwith," it said.