The rumor was that there was going to be a shooting at Righetti High School. That’s what made it to my ears, anyway. And if it made it to my ears, it made it to other people’s ears, too.
As far as I know, it was a totally bogus rumor, but that didn’t stop it from prompting parents to pick up their students.
Official word from the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District on the morning of Nov. 21 didn’t confirm any specifics.
“Throughout the day, Righetti High School has received numerous calls concerning unsubstantiated rumors that have affected the learning environment at the campus,” a press release reads. “Due to the volume of calls and the distraction that these rumors have created, we feel that the best course of action is to dismiss students early for the Thanksgiving break.”
This is a day after a St. Joseph High School campus-wide lockdown due to word of something happening at Righetti High School, which itself came just a day after an actual campus-wide lockdown at Righetti that resulted from multiple fights breaking out between groups of students—and even between students and law enforcement.
A terse, passive comment from the district—“food was thrown”—would be funny if this situation weren’t so deadly serious. And it is deadly serious. Here’s why:
Shootings do happen at schools.
Depending on your definition of a school shooting incident, there have been anywhere from 30 (with more than one person killed or injured) to 74 (including firearms discharged on a campus) such events in the United States throughout 2013 and half of 2014.
This is so clearly not something to joke about. It is not something to float as a means of getting out of school early, or to continue to sow chaos, or to prove a point. It prompts extreme reactions because it deserves extreme reactions.
Students who saw unrest unfolding on their high school campus and got the idea to generate further unrest for the sake of laughs—by, say, walking in coordinated large groups to create the impression of an impending incident just to troll the staff and law enforcement—should wake up to the truth that even a hint of the threat of violence is not a game. Playing around with the idea of student safety is nothing but a profoundly bad idea, executed in poor taste as a result of cold malice or extremely deliberate ignorance.
That is terrorism, in its broadest sense: generating this panic, this fear in other people.
If you frequently read my columns, you should know that I am not a police apologist. I believe that women and men behind the badge can and do violate the public’s trust, hold each other to a different set of standards, overstep bounds and authority, and more. We do not have a perfect system.
But capitalizing on days of mounting tension by floating hints of the very real and very horrific possibility of further violence is unacceptable. I have no sympathy for any student—or adult—found to have had a hand in adding to the weight placed upon an increasingly fragile public psyche bracing for the next tragedy.
Students, if you learn nothing else in your time at Righetti, learn this: The world is a far bigger and scarier and real place than you imagine, and it is far less forgiving of your mistakes. You can either do your part to try to lessen that hugeness, that scariness, for yourself and others. Or you can make it grow.
For good or for ill, that’s your call. Just remember: You will have to live the consequences of your choices today, and for as many tomorrows as you’re allowed on this Earth.
Is the Canary an old grump, or what?! Send comments to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 26 – Dec 3, 2014.