AOS school callout nothing to laugh at

Mark Dawson, Editor of Wanganui Chronicle

It may have added a bit of excitement to the school day and given the kids something to talk about, but there are worrying aspects to the armed offenders squad callout to Churton School in Aramoho yesterday afternoon.

The most worrying clearly is the prospect of an armed man walking around the school grounds.

However, the consensus seems to be that was not the case and the call to police was a hoax.

If so, a lot of valuable police time and energy was wasted, a whole lot of children had their education disrupted and staff and parents suffered unnecessary anxiety.

There are two likely motivations for such an act: malice or a warped sense of humour.

If it was meant as a joke, then it was a particularly sick and cruel one. One can only imagine the sense of alarm that would have spread through the school community when word of the "threat" go out.

If it was done out of malice, then it is especially contemptible.

Either way, it would be nice to see the hoaxer revealed and made to face the consequences of his or her sick actions.

The one "plus" may be that the school got to test-run its emergency procedures and seems to have handled the situation very well.

And finding that the police response was swift and thorough will be a consoling thought for all.