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Montgomery High School: Pupils absent after shooting threat | Montgomery High School: Pupils absent after shooting threat |
(about 2 hours later) | |
More than 1,000 pupils have not turned up to a school that received online death threats. | More than 1,000 pupils have not turned up to a school that received online death threats. |
Threats to kill pupils in a shooting on Monday at Montgomery High School in Blackpool were posted on social media. The user said they planned to "kill as many people as possible". | |
The school confirmed 260 of its 1,375 pupils have attended. | |
Parent Anne Hindle said her 15-year-old son and daughter were "very scared" by the "pretty dark" posts. | |
Police officers have been patrolling outside the school for "reassurance", a Lancashire Police spokeswoman said. | |
'No guarantee' | |
The planned attack was in revenge for alleged bullying, according to the Facebook post. | |
The unnamed social media user also praised gun killers in schools in the US and posted on the school's Facebook page: "Nobody talks to me or notices me except when they're calling me a nerd and pushing me around." | |
Responding to one student, the user asked: "You think it's a joke? You'll see bullets, bodies, and blood." | |
Ms Hindle, who has a son and a daughter studying for GCSEs at Montgomery High School, decided to keep her children at home. | |
"They are very scared, to be honest," she said. "They are both aged 15 and in their GCSE year, so it is a big decision to take. | |
"I have read the posts on Facebook and they are pretty dark. The police say there is no credible threat but we have no guarantee." | |
'Non-credible threat' | |
School principal Tony Nicholson said: "One wonderful thing that just shows the commitment [of the staff] is that I have got 100% attendance - it is a large school [and] every single staff member was here early." | |
He said parents should be reassured by the police assessment that this was "a non-credible threat". | |
"That's been repeated throughout the whole course of the week. The police are here in a reassuring capacity and in significant numbers." | |
The school has told parents it had planned "for an orderly start to the term with 'safe business as usual' being our aim". | |
Blackpool Council has provided counselling services for any students who have "found the last few days upsetting and stressful". | |
In a statement, Lancashire Police said there was "nothing to suggest these messages pose a credible threat". |