Roughly 300 Santa Maria High School students were pulled out of class or stayed home from school on Feb. 16 after administrators and parents became aware of threatening social media posts made by two seperate students.
Both posts followed closely behind a highly publicized school shooting in Parkland, Florida, where 17 individuals were shot and killed on Feb. 14.
Santa Maria Joint Union High School District officials discovered one post, a Snapchat picturing a student with a handgun captioned, “Fuck it,” early on Feb. 16, according to a statement from Superintendent Mark Richardson released that day. The post was reported to the Santa Maria Police Department, according to the statement, and the responsible student was contacted and the post investigated.
“The weapon in question was identified as a replica BB gun pistol,” Richardson said in the statement. “Regardless, the district and law enforcement take all of these matters seriously and will take appropriate legal and disciplinary action.”
After screenshots of that Snapchat post were shared by parents on other social media platforms, hundreds of parents hurriedly pulled their children out of school on Feb. 16, according to Kenny Klein, public information officer for the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District.
The Police Department also launched a full investigation that same week into another student’s post, Klein said, again on the platform Snapchat. Santa Maria police could not be reached for comment about the post before the Sun’s press time, however, KSBY obtained and published a screenshot of the second post, which was captioned, “Just wait until that same headline comes up on your mom’s television one day, but it’ll have Santa Maria High School instead, and well over 500 dead,” allegedly referencing the Florida shooting.
Although Klein couldn’t say specifically how either student will be disciplined, he said they could face suspension or expulsion.
This article appears in Feb 22 – Mar 1, 2018.