Campus gun scare
Police cars lined up at the front of the school on February 15 at 12:53 p.m. Photo Courtesy Of Nicholas Bade
By Sophia Hughes, web editor
Lunch break is coming to a close, but students are not focusing on their upcoming classes. Instead, their attention is drawn to the 13 police cars with two additional motorcyclists parked at the front of the school. The reason for the police presence is unknown to most, and as the bell rings, the officers tell the confused students to go to class and stay inside. Officers patrol the campus, searching the premises. Students try to prepare for class as calmly as possible given the situation, yet as they walk the halls, many reach for their phones to anxiously text parents and friends about the situation. Classes continue, and an announcement sounds on the loudspeaker 10 minutes into class stating “we will not be going into lockdown” and to “continue with classes.” Half an hour later some clarity as concerned parents receive an email from Principal Monique Luke about the threat stating that police “conducted a campus-wide search and determined that the message was a hoax.”
Santa Rosa Police DepartmentChief John Cregan told The Puma Prensa that on the afternoon of Feb. 15, at 12:32 p.m., SRPD received a 911 call from an alleged student stating there was a shooting taking place at Maria Carrillo High School with three students already shot and dead in the cafeteria. In response, SRPD sent a large police presence with approximately 20 officers to deal with school threats. “There were enough cop cars to where you [couldn't] brush it off,” said senior Emi Watanabe. Another junior, Ava Sigala, remembered thinking “How can I escape?” after hearing the possibility of a threat.
Contrary to what a Twitter post from the SRPD and an article from The Press Democrat have reported, classrooms did not go into lockdown. Cregan stated in an interview with the Prensa that it was “clear there was no threat.” With the information the police had supplied, Luke determined a lockdown procedure may cause further unnecessary trauma for students. Still, Cregan reported, out of an abundance of caution, the SRPD completed a full sweep of the school.
In addition to the malicious phone call, a second threatening message was posted on Instagram by a previous Carrillo student that threatened several current students. After the post had come to the attention of the students, some on campus assumed the two connected.
There was some debate among students for a couple of weeks after the incident regarding lockdown following the incident, including whether some buildings did in fact go into lockdown and whether students felt that a lockdown would have made them feel safer. According to Assistant Principal Randy Burbank and Luke, the A building did not go into lockdown. Some students have reported the lights being off and staff ushering students out so staff could privately talk to officers, as Luke later explained. Luke was out supervising during lunch near the service road and received a call from school secretary Lisa Greenstein to come down to the office due to a possible threat. By the time Luke arrived at the office, there was already an officer talking to the school staff. Originally, Luke says that she wanted to go into lockdown; however, before any further deliberation could be had the officer received a call indicating the threat was a hoax. More police cars pulled into the campus parking lots, responding to the threat now determined to be a hoax. Luke said that she wished she “would have gotten on the intercom faster stating that ‘things are under control’ and to ‘continue with lunch’” to ease tensions among students and staff. To conclude, she said she “hate(ed) that Pumas were scared.”
After the Feb. 15 event, Cregan, Luke, and Superintendent of Santa Rosa City Schools Anna Trunnell held a meeting to discuss what could be improved upon, including communication among school staff members. Cregen reported that they discussed that, while Maria Carrillo has practiced a lockdown drill this school year, the campus is not prepared for a situation where students and staff are out during lunch break. Luke commented that we “need a drill for a break” which she would like to bring up in a future Advisory Committee meeting [the monthly meeting with department chairs and other school leaders] addressing emergency protocols and drills. Teacher Natasha Deakins said an officer commented sometime during the response to the threat that “If there was a shooter in the cafeteria, an active shooter, there is absolutely no way that it would take four minutes for this entire school to know what was happening. It would be absolutely horrifying, so that is different from saying someone got a call and said someone saw a gun on campus.” Deakins said, “It was a really good learning lesson in terms of communication.”
In 2020 the SRCS board decided to discontinue a program between the SRPD and SRCS that employed a Student Resource Officer, or SRO, on campuses. Cregan believes that such officers on school grounds could still be beneficial to avoid situations similar to the one Carrillo experienced. “With an on-campus officer, police would be able to identify the situation and respond accordingly.” He added that “an on-campus officer who would be familiar with students and staff could cut down on response time due to them being able to recognize and speak to students directly.” Luke and Burbank are supportive of an on-campus officer, but it is up to the school board. Burbank said he “hope(s) they would have that conversation again.”
St. Helena also received a call of the same type on Feb. 15 and released an alert on an app called Nixle, which gives updates about local schools and public safety departments, at 1:00 pm. This caused a lockdown at St. Helena High School and Primary School at midday on Wednesday, Feb. 15. According to a Healdsburg police Facebook post, on Wednesday at 12:49 p.m., Healdsburg police also received a similar hoax threat pertaining to Healdsburg High School.
Apparently, the incident at MCHS was a familiar situation as even a quick Google search will show dozens of news headlines in the past several weeks about hoax school shooting reports. Lately, there have also been audio files of fraudulent shooting reports circulating the web.
Overall Luke said that she was “happy there was that much response” on Feb. 15 because in real situations such swift and extensive reactions are necessary.