Santa Barbara County, and other areas across the country, have had to deal with numerous threats to schools since the start of the school year, many coming from social media posts.

Law enforcement and school districts are asking the community to report threats they see rather than reposting them online.

Law enforcement agencies have been investigating each threat and working with school districts to determine the origin and validity of the threats.

Threats to schools have increased across the country following a shooting at a Georgia High School that killed four people in September. The rise in threats has resulted in numerous lockdowns and juvenile arrests. 

Raquel Zick from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said law enforcement often sees an increase in threats after an attack.

“When we do have an active attacker event anywhere in the nation, we will see an uptick in reporting, and that’s either because of copycat behavior or it’s because of increased vigilance on the part of local communities,” Zick said. 

Zick said the threats investigated locally have originated from teenagers, and have been reported from screenshots of social media posts and text threads. Some threats are reported to the Sheriff’s Office but actually originate in a different state. 

The Special Investigations Bureau works with state and federal agencies to identify origins of the social media posts with threats. 

“That helps us quickly determine that either it doesn’t have an origin in Santa Barbara County and is likely a hoax, and then if it doesn’t, then that’s a bit more concerning,” Zick said.

When people keep reposting the threats online, it makes it harder for law enforcement to determine the origin and credibility, Zick added.

That’s why the Sheriff’s Office and local police are advocating a “report instead of repost” mantra.

“Every time another person shares it, we have to look at that person to see if they are the originator, or just another person that’s sharing it,” Zick said. “That’s why we’re really encouraging people to share that information with law enforcement and not share it in spreading fear. We really want people to report it and not repost.”

Investigators stay in constant communication with school districts and let them know if any protective action needs to be taken, Zick said. 

On Sept. 12, San Marcos High School went into lockdown after there was a report of a concern that a student had a gun. Deputies responded, located the juvenile, determined the campus was safe and lifted the brief lockdown, sheriff’s officials said at the time.

The next day, deputies investigated a threat to campus safety at Dos Pueblos High School and, after contacting the student who made the threat, “determined it was not credible,” according to Zick.

Riley Miller, a student at San Marcos, said she’s gotten used to lockdowns at the school and wasn’t scared during the incident in September.  

“I didn’t feel that scared because I felt really secure in my classroom. I felt really safe because my teacher was staying really calm,” Miller said. 

Miller said she often sees threats circulating on Instagram and TikTok but that she’s confident in school security and doesn’t feel unsafe going to school.

Hilda Maldonado, superintendent of the Santa Barbara Unified School District, said the rumors of threats came from two social media posts that kept getting reshared.

One of the posts that was going around actually ended up being from 2018, she said.

“All leads were leading to a non-credible threat,” Maldonado said. “We also realized people were becoming more and more scared and were repeating the same information.”

That led the district, the Sheriff’s Office and the Santa Barbara Police Department to put out a joint statement asking the community to report threats to the school and law enforcement instead of reposting them. 

“We got to a point where we realized this is the same exact post that just keeps getting posted. So, as new people saw it, it just kept growing,” Maldonado said. “More reports were coming in, and that created a bit of a drain on the resources in the sense that we kept going after the same things, but always mindful of the fact that we could potentially still have a real threat.”

The rumors and social media posts stopped circulating almost immediately after the joint statement, according to Maldonado. 

She said the threats caused a lot of uncertainty and fear for students and teachers on campuses. 

“There were a few students who missed school in the following days, and we excused absences like that because we know that that’s a real threat to our mental health whenever we’re in a situation where there’s this potential for violence,” Maldonado said. “I think there’s an impact also to teachers who carry a big responsibility for caring for our students.”

Jenny Deakyne has three students at San Marcos and said she feels safe sending them to school. 

“I know at San Marcos, our admin and our faculty have done a really great job addressing issues as they come up, and they’re very proactive,” Deakyne said. 

Deakyne said she’s always been happy with the communications she’s received from the school whenever there has been an incident and that it’s always been very clear, timely and sensitive to parent concerns. 

“I felt very safe sending my kids to school, and if there was a legitimate threat, I felt that I would be notified and that they were in good hands,” Deakyne said.

For many students, lockdowns and threats to school have become a normal part of the school year. 

“I cannot imagine the anxiety and the stress that our kids are under now, and how they’ve had to normalize this,” Deakyne said. “It’s heartbreaking, but kids are resilient. Kids are strong.”

With so many of the rumors and threats coming from teenagers on social media, Deakyne said she believes the COVID-19 pandemic and increased reliance on technology has impacted students’ mental health. 

“I think our kids are isolated on their devices,” Deakyne said. “I just feel that there’s a lot more anxiety and depression. They did have to go through COVID, which was such a bizarre and crazy experience for them, and I feel like a lot of them are still coming out of that. There’s a lot of social damage.”

The community is encouraged to report safety concerns or threats to law enforcement. If an immediate threat is suspected, call 9-1-1.

Students at Santa Barbara Unified schools can anonymously report safety concerns to the district through the CrisisGo app on the school-provided iPads.

To report concerns to the Santa Barbara Police Department, call 805.882.8900 or use the SBPD online reporting system.

To report a concerns to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, call 805.683.2724 or use the online reporting system.