LOCKDOWN!

This is not a drill.

On Thursday March 6th, a bomb threat caused a school-wide lockdown of San Clemente High School.

Local police and F.B.I. officers investigated a bomb threat made on Yik Yak, a social media application. The app allows users to post comments anonymously without registering under a username or email, and it rapidly morphed into a cesspool of hateful verbiage and cyber bullying.

“I don’t know why we(students) are so mean to one another,” said senior Sarah Carrillo. “We have assemblies and posters made to stop bullying and cyber bullying, and yet we still do things like this…making the bomb threat was just taking the bullying to the next level.”

According to reports, an anonymous posting on the app made presumably by a student at SCHS, threatened that a certain ethnic group and/or student had “a bomb” and would “blow up the school.”

School administration and district personnel worked tirelessly to assess the situation, ensure the safety of all the students on campus, and finally, find the responsible parties. Two sophomore students were taken into custody early in the lock down, but they were readily released and are not considered suspects at this time.

The high school was in lockdown for approximately four hours, spanning the tutorial period all the way through into lunch time. Students were given emergency water and restroom breaks when the threat appeared under control.

Due to the anonymous nature of Yik Yak however, the posters of the threat have not yet been identified but Yik Yak has been disabled and is no longer being used here at San Clemente.

Yik Yak has affected many high schools, both with cyber bullying and bomb threats, in various states across the country, but gained its popularity on the Eastern seaboard.

If you have any further details or information regarding the March 6th threats, please contact Mr. Halt or Deputy Valdez immediately.