Parents say 'mental peace' disturbed as Delhi schools receive bomb threats

New Delhi, Jul 18 (PTI) Several parents across Delhi chose to keep their children home on Friday after 45 schools and three colleges received bomb threats in the national capital via email. This is the fourth such incident this week.
     "I did not send my son (to school) today. It is not that we are panicking, but after repeated incidents, it feels safer to wait things out," said Parmita Sharma, a parent whose child studies at Richmond School, Paschim Vihar.
     Echoing similar sentiments, Vikram Singh, whose daughter attends Sovereign School in Rohini, said, "Even if nothing serious is found, these emails disturb the mental peace of children and parents. We discussed it in our parent group and many of us decided to skip school for a day," he said.
     Adding to the growing unease is the academic impact. Twinkle Gujral, mother of a Class 8 student at Doon Public School in Paschim Vihar, said the repeated threats are disrupting classroom focus.
     "Reading such news and getting messages to take our children back home creates panic in our minds. Exams are around the corner, and all these incidents are affecting both academics and mental peace," she said and added that it is mentally exhausting for children to undergo repeated scanning and metal detector checks.
     At the Sovereign Public School, where one of the threatening emails was received, the situation remained under control. The school resumed regular classes after a police inspection found nothing suspicious.
     "We informed the authorities immediately upon receiving the email. The building was cleared after a full check, and we are conducting classes normally. We had already done emergency drills earlier this year, which helped us respond calmly," school chairperson R K Jindal said.
     Meanwhile, a father of a student in St Thomas Schools in Dwarka said that he had to leave work mid-way to pick up his daughter from school.
     "Even if there is nothing, we cannot ignore the fear these messages cause. Parents can't focus on work, and the children feel tense too. It is an emotional rollercoaster," he added.
     While schools like Sovereign continued with classes after obtaining security clearance, others, such as Maxfort Junior School in Pitampura and Cambridge Foundation School in Rajouri Garden, experienced some evacuations and a cautious handling of students present on campus.
     Delhi Police, along with bomb squads and fire services, is currently inspecting all affected schools, including institutions in Dwarka, Rohini, Vasant Vihar, Janakpuri and East of Kailash.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)