A supposed shooting threat posted on social media directed at Taft High School in Woodland Hillswhich unleashed panic among students on Tuesday, March 12, to leave the campus, some of them jumping the school fences to get away as quickly as possible.
Even though he Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) In a voice message sent to parents Tuesday morning that the threat was not credible, hundreds of people came to the school on Winnetka Avenue to pick up their children.
School officials said that, At no time was the campus closed this Tuesday.
“Taft High School is safe and is open for instruction“an LAUSD spokesperson wrote in an email.
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However, several students said that the threat that was posted on the social network Instagram was scary enough, so It spread quickly among the students, who also shared the publication among themselves.
According to reports, the Instagram post featured a photo of a gun in a person’s lap accompanied by text indicating the intention to commit a shooting at the high school in the afternoon.
He Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) He said a call was received about the threat of a shooting around 9:00 a.m. Tuesday.
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LAPD spokesman David Cuellar said the call was in connection with the publication of the threat on social networks.
“Today (Tuesday) we became aware of a social media post that raised concerns about the safety of our campus. At the moment, there is no evidence of a credible threat“LAUSD said in a message sent to parents at 9:15 a.m. Tuesday.
Neither school officials nor authorities explained why they thought the threat was not credible.
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Telephone threats have become increasingly common in the countrybecause people take advantage of fears of mass shootings or similar attacks, one call can cause chaos.
This practice, often known as “swatting” in online communities, arose after people who make such calls They are directed against schools in all states and even at an international level.
Four years ago, a 17-year-old Tennessee boy was arrested for make threats against Calabasas High School, in California.
In February of this year, Ontario authorities said an 18-year-old Hispanic student threatened Ontario Christian High School and had every intention of carry out an attack before being arrested.
This Tuesday, Taft High School students said they were afraid even though they did not believe the threat of a shooting was true.
Students mentioned that both teachers and police tried to calm them down and told them that it was safer to stay on campus than to leave it, which was not enough for several young people to run out of the school.
The KTLA network showed images of students jumping over campus fences to flee the high school premises.
Students said teachers and police tried to calm them down, telling them it was safer to stay on campus than leave on Tuesday. That did little to calm the fears of students who ran off campus..
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