A rash of apparent prank messages threatening violence on campus ” including one scrawled on a bathroom wall at Correia Middle School in Point Loma on Wednesday, May 2 ” has sent several San Diego Unified School District campuses, school district police and city officials scrambling to calm parental fears.
With heightened awareness over campus safety following the Virginia Tech massacre last month, parents and school officials are taking potential threats very seriously, Mayor Jerry Sanders said during a news conference May 4.
Joined by city and school officials that included San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, San Diego Unified School District Police Chief Don Braun and SDUSD Superintendent Carl Cohn, Sanders said all of the recent threats were immediately investigated, but ultimately determined to be pranks or copycat cases.
“Make no mistake about it,” Dumanis said during the news conference at the Eugene Brucker Education Center on Normal Street. “For anyone thinking about bringing harm or threatening harm to our kids, don’t do it. You will be caught and you will be held accountable.”
Police arrested one student from Correia Middle School and two students from the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts last week, she said.
The students could face charges such as vandalism and making “terrorist threats,” which carry a possible sentence of four years in state prison, Dumanis said.
The threats were unrelated to an incident in Vista, where police investigated reports of shots fired at Olive Elementary School, Sanders said.
Police arrested the Correia Middle School student on May 2, after students reportedly found graffiti on the wall of a girls restroom that said a school shooting would take place the next day, said Jack Brandais, spokesman for the San Diego Unified School District.
Police have not disclosed whether a weapon was uncovered at Correia or another school because of an ongoing investigation and possible prosecution.
San Diego Unified School District police officers continue to take extra security measures at county schools, Brandais said.
About half a dozen police officers and 15 parents provided an adult presence at Correia Middle School campus on May 3, according to a letter sent to parents from Correia Principal Linda Taggart. The increased security will stay in place through the end of the school year, Braun said.
“In a physical sense, nobody was injured, but it certainly disrupted the school, the parents’ routine and everything,” Brandais said.
The series of written threats found on campus include cases in Rancho Bernardo, Poway and Kearny high schools.
The latest incidents occurred at San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts, where threatening messages on bathroom walls said that a shooting would take place at 6:45 a.m. Friday, May 4. Campus police officers investigated and found no threat at the School of Creative and Performing Arts, Brandais said.
The other incident took place at Serra High School, where students reported a message scribbled on the bathroom wall made reference to a shooting at the school ” also on Friday, May 4. The incident at Serra is still under investigation, Braun said. The threats seem to have been committed in “copycat-like” fashion, he said.
Whether real or perceived, the incident at Correia has one parent fearing for her son’s life. A mother of a Correia Middle School student moved her son out of town to stay with relatives because of the threat, she said.
“I just want to make sure my son is safe and alive,” said the mother, who is unnamed to protect her son’s identity.
Hers is the kind of reaction that school administrators and city officials want to avoid, however.
Sanders said parents should remember that school is still the safest place for children to be during the day and parents should continue to send their children to school.
The SDUSD Police has had its own department for almost 30 years. There are about 65 sworn SDUSD officers deployed throughout the city’s schools with an additional 24 community service officers working in and around elementary schools, Braun said.
Investigations rely heavily on information that students provide to police officers concerning any potential threat and students are encouraged to report any suspicious activity, he said.