NEED TO KNOW
- An elementary school in England was forced to evacuate after a young student brought a WWII-era hand grenade to school for show and tell on Friday, May 16
- The school’s head teacher, Jeanette Hart, carried the weapon out of the building and placed it behind a tree as staff waited for authorities to arrive
- “It was entirely innocent,” Hart said of the student who brought the grenade to school. “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”
A bomb squad was called to a British elementary school after a student brought a World War II hand grenade to school for a show-and-tell presentation.
According to the BBC, teachers and administrators at Osmaston Church of England Primary School in Ashbourne, England — located about 35 miles outside of Sheffield — were shocked when a boy pulled a World War II-era hand grenade out of his pocket to present at show and tell on Friday, May 16.
The school’s head teacher, Jeanette Hart, told the outlet that although she didn’t know if the grenade was live or not, she carefully took the weapon from the student and carried it outside, leaving it behind a “substantial” tree in the parking lot.
“It looked old and I thought it might be safe, but I didn’t want to take the risk,” Hart said, sharing that the boy had brought the family heirloom to school without telling his parents.
“I ended the assembly, took it off him and slowly carried it outside and put it behind a far tree in the car park,” she recalled to the BBC. “I wasn’t 100% happy carrying it, to be honest.”
Emergency personnel were called to the school, including officers from the Matlock, Cromford, Wirksworth and Darley Dale Police SNT, who shared that the weapon was a “grade 5 hand grenade” in a Facebook post on Friday.
Local police wrote in their statement that military weapons experts were also called to the scene and confirmed that the grenade was not live.
“Thanks to the EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) [for] popping along and deeming the device safe (not active), through x-rays — we even got to see those images and [were] told a detailed analysis of how there was nothing that would set the grenade off,” police said.
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“It was quite an eventful assembly,” Hart added to the BBC of the surprising incident. “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,” she added.
Hart also told the outlet that most of the children were not aware of what was happening and were swiftly taken outside.
“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,” she said.
Hart also told the BBC that she had a “little chat” with the boy and his family after the incident.
“It was entirely innocent,” she said. “I don’t think he ever really knew what it was. We’d been talking about VE [Victory in Europe] Day, and he knew it was from the war and just thought it was an interesting thing.”
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“His family didn’t know [he took it], and they were a little taken aback,” she added.
In their statement, police warned parents and guardians to keep a close eye on what their kids bring to school.
“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,” they wrote.
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