Police are investigating similarities between the telephone hoax bomb threats to schools across New Zealand, including several in Canterbury, which caused major disruptions in the first week of the school year.
Assistant Commissioner Bruce O’Brien said Tuesday across New Zealand that five schools and a further 13 were targeted yesterday in what were believed to be computer-generated phone calls threatening to harm schoolchildren.
Rolleston College was one of the schools targeted yesterday. The Rolleston campus was briefly closed on Thursday afternoon and police arrived on the scene. There were also telephone threats against schools in Kaikoura, Geraldine, Marlborough and Ashburton.
“We’re looking at all those incidents right now and we’ve been in contact with schools to offer reassurance,” O’Brien told the AM show.
He said the calls were all similar in nature and mentioned that explosives had been planted in the school.
“The threat is to cause harm to students and school staff. They are very similar and called explosives, so they are designed to cause disruptions that we have seen occurring in recent days.”
O’Brien said the phone threats went through the school’s main line.
“There is a similarity between the threats made in the 18 schools. We take it very seriously. We have had our cybercrime teams work with local investigators and we will hopefully identify the person or persons as soon as possible.
“We think that the calls are computer generated, that they are masked by a computer, but we are investigating the similarities between the different events.
“These threats are such that the school has raised enough concerns to lock down or evacuate the school.”
He said police were concentrating on finding the origin of the calls, investigating whether they were made here or offshore.
“We are currently considering all our options. If you look back at 2016, we had a similar cluster of threats to schools in New Zealand that had originated offshore, so we are currently reviewing options and working with our international partners.”
O’Brien said the latest series of robo-hoaxes were designed to cause concern, damage and disruption.
“We have clearly seen damage and concern this week from students and parents who have been at home hearing about these evacuations.”
He praised schools for the way they had responded to the threats and for the reassurance they had given their school communities during this harrowing time.
O’Brien said it was worrying that anyone would think this was an appropriate way to behave and police were trying to hold those responsible to account.
Auckland’s Sacred Heart College, one of the schools that received threats, saw 1,200 students lose a day of school, 130 staff members were sent home and 100 boarding students were locked in the dining hall for four hours.
Principal Patrick Walsh said the school also had to postpone interviews with parents, a number of students had canceled their respective sports competitions, and several students had also received counseling due to anxiety issues related to the incident.
“And bearing in mind that this is in the context where there is more gun violence in New Zealand, there is a stabbing every day in Auckland and then people are aware of what is happening in the United States.
“So it’s a very anxious time for parents and students.”