Dubai British Foundation Receives Malicious Hoax Email
Yesterday, Dubai British Foundation was forced to evacuate the premises after a malicious email was received by administration staff.
In a letter to parents, principal Sue Carpenter said, "following a malicious email to the school, we implemented our security lock-down procedures followed by a complete evacuation of the school. The authorities arrived quickly and checked the school thoroughly to confirm the premises were safe and confirmed that the email was a hoax."
She went on to say, "the health and safety of our students is paramount and we would like to thank all of our parents on site at the time for their support throughout this evacuation. I would also like to thank the staff and students; they were exemplary.
"Most students have left bags and belongings in classrooms. All classrooms have been secured and personal belongings can be collected tomorrow."
Parents praised the school for its quick and effective response to the situation, with one noting, "our deepest thanks and best wishes to all the staff at the school today. I wasn't there myself but by all accounts, they were - as usual - absolutely fantastic."
School has resumed as normal today, Wednesday 31st May, at Dubai British Foundation.
Regarding the evacuation, the parents were actually so upset that day because there was a performance for 3 classes when the email was received. Some parents were already inside the gym hall and others were waiting to enter when the lockdown procedure took place. A message was placed on the communicator to advise parents of the lockdown however many parents didn't read it and were not sure why they couldn't access the gate but they were calm and waited in the sun while it was extremely hot at 12noon. All of a sudden, the school nurse came out with one of the parents who was already inside and let her out of school (so the lockdown procedure failed!). This angry parent came out and was screaming and shouting in front of all the parents who were standing out that there is a BOMB inside the school and they are not letting the kids out and she was panicking!!!!!! Other parents started to react immediately after her statement and started to jump off the fence while other mums fainted on the floor while others called 999 and a police officer arrived and opened the gate to parents who went inside and grabbed their kids while crying and nobody stopped them and they took their lunch boxes and bags.
Those parents were completely terrified and no one tried to contact them later on to explain the incident or to communicate to them about the failure of the procedure and to assure them this won't happen again!!!!! The incident passed and was never brought out on any other communications till date although the principal promised to raise it during the parents' evening on 30 August but nothing was discussed!!!
I personally requested to get to know all the health and safety procedure with them but they refused to share as it is top confidential??? What a shame.