Attendance at some Glasgow schools plunged by up to 50 percent this week after a wave of anonymous bomb-threat emails hit 148 schools across the city, Glasgow Live reports. Pupils and parents stayed home following the return from the October holiday period as news of the threats spread through parent networks and social media.
The threatening messages were sent to local authorities and school inboxes on Monday, October 19. In total, Police Scotland received well over 300 reports from educational settings across Scotland about similar threatening emails, according to Glasgow Live journalists Peter Hennessy and Billy Gaddi, who obtained attendance figures from official council channels.
Many pupils were still on holiday or on scheduled staff in-service days when the messages arrived, but the disruption escalated quickly as word spread about potential security risks. Glasgow City Council confirmed that a selection of its schools experienced attendance reductions of up to 50 percent compared with normal levels, the Glasgow Express reports.
Parents are refusing to send their children back to classrooms until they feel the situation is resolved, putting school communities and local councils under fresh pressure over crisis communication and security protocols. Police Scotland continues to investigate the source of the hoax emails, and council officials have urged families to follow official guidance rather than unconfirmed reports circulating online.
The anonymous emails landed on Monday, October 19, while many pupils were still on the October break or observing staff in-service days, so the disruption only became fully clear as schools reopened this week, Glasgow Live reports. Glasgow City Council urged families to rely on official communications rather than rumors circulating in parent messaging groups. Police Scotland is working to trace the source of the messages, and the episode has renewed debate over crisis communication protocols and absence tracking in Scottish schools.
Photo: Finlay McWalter, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons