The director of the secondary school – about threats to schools: we will have to learn to live in such situations

The police department said on Monday morning that police had received three identical emails last night saying that explosives had been placed at various facilities, which will explode today at 12:12 p.m. In total, such letters were sent to about 1,500 addressees.

Schools decide how to proceed

Those addressees are schools, kindergartens, companies, according to police representatives. They urge you not to panic and share recommendations on what to do if you receive a threatening message.

On Friday, such announcements brought a lot of confusion, and in some institutions – chaos, since the situation is unusual, educational institutions basically have no experience in how to deal with such cases.

“Municipal educational institutions follow the recommendations and instructions of police officers. The head of each institution has the right to independently make a decision, taking into account the threats and the security situation, to move classes outside, to conduct them remotely or to temporarily stop the educational process”, says the Vilnius City Municipality.

Other municipalities claim to have held remote meetings with the heads of all educational institutions.

The head of each institution has the right to make a decision independently, taking into account the threats and the security situation.

“October 16 a repeated cyber attack across the country. Educational institutions receive reports of possible explosions at 12 o’clock. 12 minutes Our educational institutions respond appropriately: after receiving reports, they inform about it by the short number 112. While waiting for the arrival of the police officers, we recommend viewing video camera recordings, making sure that the premises have not been visited by suspicious persons.

Police officers come to check all establishments. During a remote meeting with the heads of all educational institutions, we decided that we always respond to this cyber attack seriously, acting calmly, without panic. Notifications will also be sent to parents.

We emphasize that the police officers call the resulting situation a cyber attack, the purpose of which is to create panic and paralyze the work of the responsible institutions. We have to react calmly and responsibly,” Elektrėnai Municipality wrote on social networks.

The head of the Trakai district police commissariat informed that the police are responding to the reports received from the institutions today and are conducting inspections of the premises of the institutions.

The municipality of Trakai district claims that its leaders and responsible specialists met with the heads of educational institutions in the district and the head of the police commissariat of Trakai District, Sigitus Šemi: “During the meeting, the recommendations of the National Crisis Management Center (NKVC) and the Lithuanian Police, algorithms of internal communication in institutions, cooperation with the municipality’s civil safety specialist and the organization of the educational process according to the approved educational plans of the institutions.

The head of the Trakai district police commissariat informed that the police are responding to the reports received by the institutions today and are conducting inspections of the premises of the institutions.”

I had to leave the premises

On Monday at noon, the majority of Lithuanian students and kindergarteners were not greeted in classrooms or canteens, but outside or in other premises outside their schools.

The police’s recommendation was that schools should be left at the time specified in the threats.

Rimantas Remeika, director of Vilnius Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas High School, says that there was no evacuation either on Friday or Monday at the school he leads – a different path was chosen.

“We stopped the educational process and asked the parents to pick up the children from school. Evacuation is when we gather in one place, etc. It is written in the education plan that if there is an emergency situation that threatens the health and safety of the child, the director can make a decision to stop the education process.

We chose such a way that there would be less stress for everyone. The probability that something will happen is not high, but it is small. Today we chose a different path – since part of our lessons are always held outside the school, we simply organize a lesson outside the school at 12 o’clock. It’s either in the yard or in some square, some will go to Lukiškės Square, some to the library, etc. From 12:00 to 13:00. there will be a lesson outside the school building”, said the director.

Julius Kalinskas / 15min photo / Rimantas Remeika

You will have a plan of action

R. Remeika said that he intended to prepare a final algorithm of several steps on how to act in one or another case – after all, what should be done in the event of a nuclear power plant accident is already known, but this is how one should act if a bomb is planted in a school, not yet.

“There are several options – whether a certain time has been set for the explosion, by those terrorists, or not. With all of this in mind, we’ve put together a few steps to keep parents in the know.

For example, what is the difference between a fire alarm and an emergency alarm? Today, the children “played a prank” – one of them pressed the fire alarm button, thus causing some commotion. We stabilized the situation very quickly, we found out which child did it, well, it was a joke,” said R. Remeika, promising to hold trainings that would explain the differences between different types of alarms.

Today, the children “played a prank” – they pressed the fire alarm button, thus causing some commotion. We stabilized the situation very quickly, found out which kid did it, well, made a joke.

“Life forces you to go along with the world. There are many different cataclysms in the world, and those waves also reach Lithuania. We need to learn to live with it, and what are you going to do,” he added.

Skirmantas Lisauskas/BNS photo/Midday in the center of Vilnius

The police messages were misleading

On Friday, when about 850 educational institutions received reports of allegedly placed explosives, the director of the secondary school says he missed clear information from the institutions. Because it is said that even the police almost spread two messages at the same time, which in a certain sense were misleading. The first was that it was necessary to meet the officers at the school, the second was that it was necessary to leave the building.

The pro-gymnasium led by him had already started preparing for a similar incident, says R. Remeika: “Maybe it was easier for me, because I had been preparing for it since Thursday evening. The day before yesterday, there was a report that the Ukrainian school was mined, and it is operating in the premises of our Fishermen’s branch. We already had the opportunity to inspect the school at night and think about what will happen if it happens. Therefore, we took decisions quite calmly.

There was a bit of chaos because some teachers got stressed. I hadn’t thought of that. Today I gathered the teachers, told them how to behave, what to say to the children, etc., now it will be calm. But you know – the first time is always like that, unprepared. There was a mini-chaos because maybe too many kids spilled at once. Maybe you should have waited quietly in the classroom for your parents and then gone outside.”

15 min photo/Evacuation in Vilnius

According to the director, it is necessary to learn from the first generation, it is also necessary for parents to keep in mind that they can receive notifications about some kind of danger in children’s schools, so check e-mail, phone, and e-website notifications.

“We will have to learn to live in such situations. You can’t not react because there is a chance that something will happen. But it’s easier for us in schools – we can move lessons to some square, you can switch to distance education, you can work on the educational process during the holidays. There are various things.

The only problem is that parents don’t read the information. This is probably the weakest link in Lithuania. I posted that information on Friday, it’s only 30%. parents read it. Of course, they also received it through another channel, from the teachers,” said the director.

The day before yesterday, there was a report that the Ukrainian school was mined, and it is operating in the premises of our Fishermen’s branch. We already had the opportunity to inspect the school at night and think about what will happen if it happens.

R. Remeika says he has no doubt that there will be more such cases. And it is said that the children themselves often contribute, as if jokingly, because in the social network groups that are indicated in the threats sent, they share which schools are “necessary to blow up”.