KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
A lockdown at Santa Clarita Valley International School (SCVi) due to a possible threat has been lifted, with a 15-year-old suspect in custody, officials said.
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The lockdown at SCVi started at about 9:20 a.m. Thursday morning and lasted almost three hours, until one suspect was detained in relation to the incident, according to Sheriff’s officials.
“The Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station was notified by the Santa Clarita Valley International Charter School (SCVi) administration of a 9th-grade student who reportedly made a threatening statement while at school on Wednesday,” said Shirley Miller, spokesperson. “The student stated that he was going to ‘shoot up the school and students.’His statement was overheard by another student, who later relayed the information to their parent.”
The parent contacted the school Thursday morning, and administration determined that the student who made the alleged threats was not yet present at school. School staff immediately contacted SCV Sheriff’s, and the school was put on lockdown as a precautionary measure, according to officials.
“Deputies responded to the school site on Hasley Canyon Road in Castaic, and after confirming that the student was not at school yet, a group of deputies provided security on the campus, while other deputies worked diligently with school officials to determine possible locations where the student could be found,” added Miller.
After a residence in the Piru was identified as a possible location, a team of deputies was dispatched to the location. Upon arrival to the Piru location, deputies made contact with the 15-year-old male student, and subsequently charged him with making Criminal Threats, according to Sheriff’s officials.
The juvenile was transported and booked at Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, officials said.
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The SCVi leadership team locked down the site after receiving an unconfirmed threat, and notified the sheriff’s department immediately. Deputies arrived at the site within minutes, said Amber Raskin, founder and executive director.
“All learners (students) were safely locked down in secure and supervised areas. Staff members and deputies were closely monitoring the perimeter of the site to ensure our buildings remained secure,” said Raskin. “Deputies asked our leadership team to keep the school locked down – and to not release learners to their parents – until they decided it was safe, and we complied with all of their directives.”
In addition, our safety & facilities director immediately responded to SCVi to supervise the implementation of our Emergency Operations Plan. She is a certified ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate) trainer and attends regular briefings to stay up to date with federal guidelines and best practices, added Raskin.
“She will be directing additional drills in the coming days and weeks to ensure all learners and staff are up to speed on the proper procedures during emergencies. The sheriff’s department has identified the individual involved as a 15-year-old learner who was not at SCVi today. Deputies have arrested the individual on suspicion of making criminal threats.”
Due to the ongoing law enforcement investigation, we are not able to release any additional information about the threat or the person involved. Please know that authorities have assured our team that they are handling the matter, and that all learners are safe.
“SCVi will be open as usual tomorrow, and our care team will be available for any learners who wish to share their feelings about what happened today,” said Raskin.
The Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station continues to work with all of our area schools and community to ensure safe campuses throughout the Santa Clarita Valley.
“Students are encouraged that if they see something, say something,” said Miller. “Our school resource officers look into each and every tip received, as we want to do everything we can to keep our students and schools safe.”
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This has been going on since 9:13 this morning. We need to know what’s happening. There have been no texts from the school since 9:25 and parents are worried! This is over 40 minutes of silence…no information about our kids!
Thank you. Glad to know kids are OK. Will be waiting to hear that all is clear!
is it all clear yet?
During a lock down, Students and staff at any school are required to follow law enforcement directives. The directives are to keep everyone safe. No one leaves or comes into any building during a lock down. This keeps everyone safe. As a result, parents and others are stressed as well as the staff & students. However, texts, phone calls, etc. only add to the confusion and threat to all involved. Be assured, the staff is well trained to care for you children, and in this case the did so immediately. Unfortunately, in other instances across America, many schools didn’t have this opportunity to act ahead of a possible or real threat. Law enforcement, staff, and the student who first took the necessary step to help make sure all staff & students were safe should be commended for a job they do so well each & every day.
As a parent of an SCVi student, I will say that I thought this situation was handled with the best effort to keep the children safe. The staff (and the students) all did a great job following procedures and keeping the children safe and they deserve our thanks! My only critique, if I were to give one, is that the actual words “KIDS ARE SAFE” were not used in any communication to the parents for over 2 hours. The reports coming in now are not accurate to REAL TIME. I know, as I was on the receiving end of the school communications. The fact that the threat was not on campus is not something that could be released, and that makes total sense, but parents would have liked to have the simple words “all children are accounted for and are safe” in one of the earlier communications so that we could breathe a little easier.
Let me stress, the school and the sheriffs did a FANTASTIC job! THANK YOU to the student and the parent that did the right thing by alerting school officials!!!!