Schools prepared for emergencies, Govt insists amid concerns after trespass incident

The Gibraltar Government insisted on Wednesday that schools are prepared for emergencies amid concerns triggered by an incident in which a group of young trespassers entered Westside School during class time last week.

Teachers’ union NASUWT and the GSD have both questioned the Government’s response following the incident, during which students were told to barricade themselves in their classrooms.

At the time, Minister for Education Dr John Cortes said the schools had followed established protocols and that the Government would in any event review security measures, adding that some of the rumours following the short-lived incident had been exaggerated.

A Government spokesperson said a review of the incident had confirmed the trespassers briefly entered the school on March 27 for four minutes.

CCTV captured the group entering the school at 1.50pm in the flow of students returning from their lunchbreak.

The spokesperson told the Chronicle the main school gates were open at the time to accommodate the large number of pupils entering the school.

“The gates were, as is always the case, being monitored by the security guards,” the spokesman said.

“Due to the high volume of pupil movement at that time - up to 3,000 pupils across the two neighbouring secondary schools - it is challenging to monitor every individual entering during peak windows of movement.”

Pupils informed a teacher that a group of unknown individuals had entered the school at 1.58pm, about four minutes after they had already left the building.

“This was escalated immediately to senior leadership,” the spokesman said.

“CCTV footage confirmed that the individuals exited the premises at 13:54, before staff initiated their physical sweep of the building.”

“They were not confronted by school staff or security before leaving.”

The spokesperson added that the school’s senior leadership team had attempted to contact the Royal Gibraltar Police via the non-emergency line shortly after initiating their safety protocols.

“While they were initially unable to make contact, the RGP reached out to the school shortly afterwards in response to external reports,” the spokesman said.

“The RGP were invited to attend, and an additional precautionary sweep of the building was conducted with the RGP.”

In the wake of the incident, teachers’ union Gibraltar NASUWT said it had been provided with an Emergency Response Plan for Westside School by Dr Cortes, and that this was subsequently added to the school’s staff handbook by senior management the same day.

“It is concerning that no such plan was in place prior to the incident, an issue the Union intends to investigate further,” the union said.

“Gibraltar NASUWT formally requested a meeting with the Minister for Education and the Director on Thursday, 27th March, and we are still awaiting confirmation of a meeting date.”

“The union expects meaningful engagement with the Minister of Education to address ongoing concerns related to the health, safety, and well-being of our members and students."

The GSD reacted to this statement and said claims that the Government “subsequently” added an Emergency Response Plan to a handbook on the same day were “shocking”.

“Not least because the Government has stated to the public the exact opposite,” the GSD said.

The party added that if the plan had been added after the event, as the union had indicated “it is shocking and shameful for the Government to have falsely said there was a plan in place”.

The Leader of the Opposition, Keith Azopardi, called the incident very serious and asked for an explanation.

“The Government now needs to explain when this plan was in place, why all teachers do not seem to have known about it and why the union is saying this was ‘subsequently added’ to the school handbook,” he said.

“How can it have been triggered if it was ‘subsequently added’?”

“It would be a disgrace for them to mislead the public on an issue as central to children’s safety.”

Shadow Education Minister Edwin Reyes said lessons need to be learned and security measures enhanced at all Government schools.

“What would be a travesty is that the Government misleads the public on the level of preparedness to make themselves look better,” Mr Reyes said.

“They should focus on strengthening security for our children, teachers and staff and deliver the truth.”

Hours later, the Government hit out at the GSD for politicising the issue and suggesting that Dr Cortes had attempted to deliberately mislead the public.

The Government said it was “disappointed, but not surprised”, adding that the GSD knew Westside School had worked closely with the Department of Education’s Strategic Health Lead over the past year, specifically in relation to the school’s Emergency Response Policy.

“The GSD know this because the Minister discussed the policy almost immediately with both Mr Azopardi and Mr Reyes on the day of the events in question, and at the earliest possible opportunity made a statement to Parliament which Mr Azopardi welcomed,” the Government said.

The Government added that it is engaging positively with the NASUWT to further improve existing protocols, with more meetings set for next week.

“If Mr Reyes had bothered to contact the Minister for Education to ask, the same would have been shared with him,” the Government said.

The statement added that the GSD had chosen to publicly denounce the Minister for Education’s character, adding this should be immediately withdrawn.

“It’s disappointing that Edwin, a lifelong friend and a former teacher himself, has chosen to politicise and aggravate a matter that is being worked on collaboratively and positively by all other stakeholders,” Dr Cortes said.

“I assume he is under pressure from the less responsible elements in his Party and whilst he looks after their political interests, misguided as he may be in doing so, I will continue to work to make sure that every pupil and teacher in every school are safe.”

In another statement, the Government shared details of its emergency response preparedness underscoring that a whole-school INSET training was delivered on civil contingencies in February 2024, with each subject lead and their department tasked with planning their response to a lockdown.

The Government said staff were then invited to complete a Google Form audit on their lockdown needs and the results were used to inform the revised Emergency Response Policy.

A few months later, in June 2024, an updated Emergency Response Policy was uploaded to the staff handbook.

Last month, a staff member streamlining the handbook for their master’s dissertation began transferring documentation to a new, more user-friendly format on a revised platform, the Government said.

“Following the incident, it was noted that the Emergency Response Policy had not yet been moved to the updated version,” the Government said.

“It was then uploaded on the new platform, but it had already been available on the old platform.”

“The Anti-Bullying Policy, which had been missed in the same transfer, was also uploaded then.”

“Fire evacuation procedures were revised this academic year and are published daily on the staff cover sheet.”

“A Whole School Fire Evacuation drill was conducted on 19th March 2025, one week before the incident.”

“A Year 7 Evacuation Fire Drill was held on 5th February 2025. In addition to the actual evacuation practice, a PowerPoint was shared with all year 7 classes during their PSHE lesson to ensure staff and students were clear on the procedure.”

The Government again added that the school has worked closely with the Department of Education’s Strategic Health Lead over the past year.

According to the Government, the school’s Emergency Response Policy was discussed with the Strategic Health Lead in May 2024, and collaboration on issues including access control were ongoing.

“A site meeting was held in May 2024 to review practical safeguarding arrangements, including the side-door access points which were specifically reviewed,” the Government said.

“Following the event last week, the Minister was approached by NASUWT by email on Thursday 27 March and replied within 30 minutes.”

“The following morning the Minister supplied NASUWT with a link to the protocol and with a list of measures that were being introduced to enhance security, the outcome of a meeting held that very morning.”

“NASUWT replied with helpful comments and the Minister undertook in reply to meet the Union as soon as he had received all the information necessary to provide a full response.”

“The date of the meeting had not yet been communicated to the Union, so that the impression, no doubt unintended, given in the NASUWT press release was that there was no response on behalf of the Minister or Director.”

“This is not the case, and a meeting will be held next week to discuss these matters in full.”