Local Campuses Threatened
Violent threats have become an all-too-common reality over the past few months, first with the November mass shootings in Paris and then the December shootings in San Bernadino.
Locally, several cases of violent threats have occurred as well. The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) recently announced a full closure of all its schools — the first systemwide closure since 1994 — due to a “credible threat,” which was later found to be a hoax. In addition to LAUSD’s threats, Redondo Union and Mira Costa (MCHS) received bomb threats in November and December.
Three times in one week, MCHS received a phone call warning staff that there was a bomb on campus. Students were dismissed from school during the first two incidents. The third threat was judged to be a fraud and though lockdown was initiated, school was not dismissed. Nothing appeared to be suspicious on campus, and school activity resumed as usual.
Canceling school comes with its own risks. Recent news reports indicate that a student was killed the day LAUSD dismissed students from school. The death was presumed to be related to the violent threats.
“Sending kids out on the street might not be as safe as keeping everybody [in school],” Principal Mitzi Cress said.
A mass shooting targeted towards MCHS was posted on the social media app Yik Yak in November 2014, occurring around the same time of the year that the more recent bomb threats occurred.
“The kids are getting really tired of it,” MCHS Academic School Counselor Keisha Fields said. “There are some kids that are anxious, though, but most of them are irritated by these continuing threats.”
The MCHS staff’s main concern was the lack of communication between parents and schools, which improved during the most recent bomb threat. Manhattan Beach Unified School District (MBUSD) Superintendent Mike Matthews began sending mass text messages, emails and voicemails to the district’s staff and parents of the students.
“Our superintendent now does a really good job of reaching out to parents,” Fields said.
Receiving four to five emails regarding the third incident, parents were better informed about what was happening with the safety of their children.
According to Fields, each lost school day will be added onto the end of the year, meaning that the school year will end later than intended. As the threats have continued, many students are beginning to become more skeptical towards the apparent dangers. If the suspect is discovered to be a student from the school, they face expulsion from the district.
“When it comes to threats like this, you have to take them seriously, no matter what,” Fields said.
Students are constantly concerned about the risks of these threats and the potential consequences following them. Luckily, at Peninsula there have been no threats to the campus. The staff is now well aware of how to handle a situation like this.
“I have a protocol that we have set up in all of the offices because some of these calls at some schools came into a secretary,” Cress said.
The last viable threat to Peninsula was 12 years ago. Since then, the staff has developed a more efficient evacuation plan, as well as two additional backup evacuation locations in case of an emergency.
