Bomb alerts in schools, the security protocol changes: no evacuations without concrete risks

The barrage of bomb scares that hit over 6,000 Italian schools yesterday is pushing the government to put security procedures in order.

The objective is to prevent a simple email, sent simultaneously to thousands of recipients, from paralyzing entire institutions, causing evacuations and mobilizing the police even in the absence of a concrete danger.

The new line is clear: no automatic eviction based on a generic threat.

To get students, teachers and staff out of buildings, specific elements will be needed to make the risk credible.

This is the principle underlying the common operational protocol that will be defined this afternoon during the technical meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Committee for the Security of the Republic (CISR).

The provisions are already operational and apply to all administrations involved in the management of reports.

The change of approach comes in the aftermath of the new wave of threats that has sown alarm in schools, from Milan to Rome to Palermo.

A mass email announced the presence of explosive devices, triggering checks and, in several cases, the evacuation of students.

The checks by the police and carabinieri bomb squad gave negative results.

The central point of the protocol is to distinguish the threat from its actual credibility.

Merely receiving an intimidating communication, even when it reaches thousands of schools or other public buildings at the same time, will not be considered sufficient to order an evacuation.

Further concrete elements will be needed to suggest that a dangerous situation exists.

This is not, however, an absolute ban on evacuations.

The protocol leaves the prefects with the power to order the eviction of buildings when specific and concrete circumstances emerge which constitute an actual risk.