Last week, San Marcos High School was put under lockdown because of a call made to police at 3:32 p.m. According to our Principal, Mrs. Guajardo, “The response by law enforcement was swift and professional with all safety protocols followed. It was determined that at no point was there an armed individual or any threat present on our campus. We also have increased law enforcement presence.¨
But is this the first incident to happen at SMHS? Far from it. I am a senior here at SMHS, and one of these threats has been made every single year I have been here as a student.
In my freshman year on December 18th, images were spread around the campus saying that a student was going to shoot up San Marcos High School that next day and to not come to school. In the internet age, rumors and information get spread around fast. Allegedly, a student had gotten jumped or a fight had happened, and that student made a threat online about him shooting up the school with him and his cousins. My information was heavily muddled at this time as it was a panicked rumor. Still, the principal at the time, Mrs. Denisha Presley, had sent out an email stating that the police had been in contact with the student’s parents and were in control of the situation. The investigation concluded that there was no legitimate threat to the high school and that there would be heightened security on campus.
In my sophomore year, we were put on hold as students had posted online about them having placed bombs in the school, and that they were going to go off. We were put under a hold for a few hours and sent out hall by hall to get sack lunches. Ultimately, no threat was found.
In my junior year, there was another bomb threat in the district, not just San Marcos High School. I do not remember this one as well. After a while, it gets hard to tell them apart.
No kid should have to go through the stress of worrying if the school shooting threat they get is real or not, and ultimately it will hurt the school overall. One day, we may get a legitimate school shooting threat, but no student would take it seriously because it’s ‘just another online threat’.
Last week when the lights were out, and we were all hiding, I found myself calm, completely desensitized to the amount of times this has happened. This could have been a legitimate threat, but I would not have known because this is just my traditional senior year school shooting threat.
But that’s the scariest thing I experienced last week.
