School evacuated after student brought grenade to show-and-tell

A school had to be evacuated, and army bomb disposal experts were called after a pupil brought a hand grenade to a show-and-tell assembly yesterday.

The youngster unexpectedly produced the WW2 explosive device at Osmaston CofE Primary School, in Ashbourne, Derbyshire.

Head teacher Jeanette Hart said she was ‘unsure if the grenade was live’ – so she took it from the boy and placed it behind a ‘substantial’ tree in the school’s car park while the emergency services were called.

Army experts later established the grenade was safe, but police praised the ‘quick-thinking’ staff.

Mrs Hart said: ‘It was quite an eventful assembly. It was going fine and there was a boy who brought an old bullet case in, which I knew about, but then his friend produced a hand grenade from his pocket.

‘That, I was not expecting.’

Mrs Hart told the BBC she ‘tried to avoid a panic’ when she realised the pupil was holding the grenade – a family heirloom he had picked up without telling his parents.

She said: ‘It looked old and I thought it might be safe, but I didn’t want to take the risk.

‘I ended the assembly, took it off him and slowly carried it outside and put it behind a far tree in the car park. I wasn’t 100% happy carrying it, to be honest.’

Students were moved to safety while police and army explosive experts were called to the scene.

Mrs Hart said: ‘The children didn’t really know what was going on but they knew something was different and they were excited because they saw the police and because they were playing out when they would have been in school.’

Derbys Police said army explosives experts determined the grenade was safe using X-ray equipment.

A spokesman for the Matlock, Cromford, Wirksworth and Darley Dale Police Safer Neighbourhood Team added: ‘We even got to see those (X-ray) images and were told a detailed analysis of how there was nothing that would set the grenade off.

‘Just a word of guidance for parents and guardians – double check what your kids are taking to show-and-tell, especially when they are family heirlooms.’

Mrs Hart said she had had chat with the boy after the drama: ‘It was entirely innocent. I don’t think he ever really knew what it was.

‘We’d been talking about VE Day and he knew it was from the war and just thought it was an interesting thing.

‘His family didn’t know and they were a little taken aback.’

Last November, a show-and-tell event at a junior school in Hampshire ended in disaster when a child brought in a historic explosive device.

Orchard Junior School in Dibden Purlieu was evacuated after the item was shown to the class.

A police spokesman said: ‘The school was calmly evacuated and a disposal team attended to take the item away to be destroyed as a precaution.’

To make sure parents were aware of the situation, an email was sent out that described the object as a ‘historic incendiary device’.

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