A violent threat posted to social media targeting Taft High School in Woodland Hills led to panicked students streaming off campus on Tuesday, March 12, with some jumping fences to leave as quickly as possible.
Despite the Los Angeles Unified School District reporting the threat was not credible in a morning voice message to parents, hundreds lined up down Winnetka Avenue Tuesday morning to pick up their children.
At no point was the campus locked down Tuesday, officials said.
“Taft High School is safe and open for instruction,” an LAUSD spokesman said in an email.
Several students said the threat posted to Instagram was frightening enough that it quickly swept through the school as students checked their cell phones and shared the post with one another.
“I would say from the beginning of school when I first came in you could tell the mood was off,” said Alan Clay, a sophomore, outside Taft at around 1 p.m. “There were kids crying and a whole bunch of parents gathering outside.”
According to KTLA, the post on Instagram included a photo of a gun on someone’s lap and text indicating an intention to commit a shooting at the school by the afternoon.
A Los Angeles Police Department spokesman said police got a call about the threat at around 9 a.m. on Tuesday.
The call was “basically about a social media post making threats,” said Officer David Cuellar.
LAUSD sent Taft parents a voice message at 9:15 a.m.
“Today, we became aware of a social media post that raised concerns about the safety of our campus,” the voice message said, according to LAUSD. “At this point, there is no evidence of a credible threat.”
While LAPD was investigating the post, neither police nor the school district have said why they believe the threat was not credible.
Phoned-in threats have become increasingly commonplace around the country as people taking advantage of intense fears of mass shootings or other such attacks have found that just making a phone call, from anywhere, can lead to chaos.
A teenager from Lancaster arrested in February for threatening violence against a mosque in Florida, which led to dozens of police officers descending on the mosque out of fear that a mass shooting was taking place, was believed to potentially be behind dozens and dozens of similar calls around the country.
The practice, often known as “swatting” in online communities, has popped up as callers have targeted schools across state lines and even internationally.
Four years ago, a 17-year-old from Tennessee was arrested for threatening Calabasas High School.
Some of the threats have been found to be credible, keeping law enforcement on edge: In February, police in Ontario said an 18-year-old student who threatened Ontario Christian High School had “every intention” of carrying out an attack before he was arrested.
At Taft on Tuesday, some students said while they did not believe the threat, it still left them afraid.
“Because it was just Instagram Stories I didn’t know how credible it was,” said Sarah Guzman, a student at Taft. “But of course you get nervous, in case anything actually does happen.”
Instagram Stories allows users to publish posts that automatically delete after a certain amount of time.
Guzman’s mother, Sandra Orellana, said she was freaked out by the situation and rushed to the school as fast as she could.
Students said teachers and police attempted to calm them down, telling them that it was safer to stay on campus than to leave Tuesday. That did little to quell the fears of students who rushed off campus.
KTLA showed footage of students climbing a tall fence on one side of the school, throwing their backpacks over and scurrying up to the top of the fence before jumping or climbing down.
Student Evan Mesri told KTLA that at some point midmorning, students started to check their phones and saw the threat, leading many students to go to the school’s front office to request to leave the school.
“Most of the teachers were guarding everywhere, because they said it’s safer to be at school,” Mesri said. “But so many did try to hop the fence and leave.”
