Yreka, Calif. — Extra police were outside two Yreka schools on Friday after a series of threats.
While police say the threats weren’t credible, they wanted to be there to support nervous parents and students.
“We were hearing it was a hoax, it wasn’t a hoax,” the parent of a student in the Yreka Union Elementary School District said.
In an age where anyone can say anything on social media, it’s very easy for something to get blown out of proportion.
When dealing with the topic of a potential school shooting, the conversation becomes very serious.
“As a parent, it wasn’t worth the risk,” Katina Davis said.
Katina Davis decided to keep her kids home from school on Friday after hearing about a potential gun threat at Jackson Street Middle School in Yreka.
She heard about it from other parents on Facebook who had heard about it from their children.
But according to the Yreka Union Elementary School District, the threat was a hoax.
“There was no determination that there was any sort of threat,” Superintendent Dave Parsons said.
Superintendent Dave Parsons says a person from the community notified the district on Tuesday of an alarming social media post.
When the district checked for the post, it wasn’t there.
The person claimed it was deleted, but after contacting law enforcement and speaking with the student, Parsons says the investigation revealed the threat was not credible.
In fact, the student denied ever posting something.
“That student is being vilified right now,” Parsons said.
Parson says another parent who knows the whistle blower says the person made the story up.
“Trying to react to that is difficult as a district and as a community,” Parsons said.
The district decided not to say anything since there wasn’t an actual threat and they wanted to protect the student who was targeted.
“We have to protect all students including students that are wrongly accused on an incident,” Parsons said.
But somehow, the community still found out and panicked.
Davis says she would have appreciated a blanket statement from the district, notifying parents of the potential rumors.
“As a community we could have avoided the hysteria,” Davis said.
But in the end, she says the conversation needs to start at home.
“…so that your kids have the tools and understanding to know how to deal with these types of rumors. Or in extreme cases, have a plan for if something like this were to actually happen,” Davis said.
The superintendent says the district will be exploring ways to better inform the community in the future so a situation like this doesn’t happen again.
Meanwhile, the Yreka Police Department says all investigations have been sent to the FBI for review.
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