By Grace Gollihur, Managing Editor
On the week of Sept. 15 El Camino High School dealt with a myriad of threats to the safety of students and staff on campus. Many social media posts circled around the student body, and there were weapons present. Teachers were alerted of these issues through a new app called CatapultEMS. This app lets all teachers check in with Administrators so they can account for all their students. Parents were also notified through email and phone messages as these events unfolded.
All of this behavior is unacceptable to any school environment, and is against the rules for campuses across the nation.
On the morning of Sept. 16, two students brought weapons to school. These weapons included an airsoft faux gun with the orange tip, and two knives. Another student witnessed the student with the airsoft gun showing another student, and reported this to the hall monitor. While these students did not threaten to hurt anyone or brandish these weapons, it is vital that students are aware that bringing any sort of object that could be seen as a weapon on campus is very dangerous and is not tolerated.
Administration and staff dealt with this situation quickly and efficiently, as described by Principal Evelyn Welborn and Hall Monitor Tre Thomas. Tre explained the events of Monday morning and the ongoing social media threats.
“[The threats] are really unnecessary because they cause distress and concern not only for students—but it also scares the parents,” Thomas said.
Thomas also spoke about his pride for the student that stepped forward and reported the incident. Violent threats have become a part of America’s school culture, and for some schools in our nation, incidents like this happen across the country.
This school has a Behavioral Threat Assessment Team that is made up of many staff members. This team’s members are the people who deal with all threats that come through the school. Their main job is to determine the severity and truthfulness of the threat, and to notify parents and students if needed. They are also the people that deal with law enforcement.
Many social media posts have been circling throughout the student body, boasting plans to ‘shoot up’ the school, causing distress and panic with students and parents. These posts have been deemed untrue by San Juan Safe Schools, and alerts were sent out to teachers and parents so they could be properly informed about these issues.
EC Counselor and parent of an EC student Carrie Mitchell stated her feelings towards these accumulated threats.
“It makes me sad because I want everybody to feel safe coming to school—it’s been really hard,” Mitchell stated.
Mitchell also spoke about how she has been receiving a lot of parent phone calls and how she dealt with all of these parents. She explained that she leveled with these parents and described how the school was keeping everyone safe.
Violence threats, real or not, are continuing to harm school communities in many ways. Causing panic and distress is not something to be proud of, and students should not be participating or condoning this behavior.
Weborn explained what she wants all students to know and understand about this behavior.
“If students see something that they think is unsafe or see something that is concerning to them, they need to say something to an adult—there are far more students than there are adults,” Welborn stated.
It is vitally important that students report unsafe behavior, because they are more connected to every student on campus than any adult will ever be. If all students can speak up and stop this behavior, we can have a safer campus that is dedicated to its original purpose: helping students learn and grow as people.
If a student needs to report anything, they can talk to any staff member on campus or call the office.
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