Yuma County plagued with school threats causing disruptions

YUMA, AZ (AZFamily) — Schools are seeing increased school threats nationwide, including in Arizona and smaller communities like Yuma County.

The Yuma Police Department says they’ve had more than 250 school threats this month alone, causing some school closures and lockdowns.

Authorities are hoping to get a message across to parents and students about the seriousness of reposting threats online and joking about school shootings.

“The insecurity of sending your child to school is pretty hard,” said Araceli Gonzalez, a San Luis mom of three.

Recent threats in San Luis led to schools being shut down for two days.

An 11-year-old student was arrested for making threats about Cesar Chavez Elementary School. Police say the student made the threats through TikTok messages.

“The student admitted that he had made it as a prank, but he admitted that he ultimately made those comments intentionally,” said Emmanuel Botello, a lieutenant for the San Luis Police Department.

Botello says the student faces multiple charges and one felony charge for disrupting an educational institution.

“We said it before. We said it prior to this incident, we are investigating every incident to the fullest and we’re going with any charges that are applicable because this needs to stop,” said Botello.

Gonzalez says these threats made her think twice about sending her kids to school.

“Prank or not , the prank let up to the kids being scared, parents being all over the street. It caused a lot of problems and insecurity of sending your kids to school,” she said.

Botello acknowledges these threats were unfortunate and understands why parents are upset.

“They want to know if it is safe. ‘Can I take my kids to school?’ They are reaching out to the police department. They want answers. They want alternatives. And I don’t blame them,” he said.

The arrest follows a string of nationwide school threats that which started after two students and two teachers were killed in a school shooting earlier this month in Georgia.

“On several occasions it was just students passing along threats or screenshots of events, some of them confirmed to be old events,” said Botello.

On Thursday, local law enforcement and school officials held a safety forum at Yuma City Hall.

Yuma Police Chief Thomas Garrity led the safety meeting. He said all agencies were working in collaboration to investigate the threats and respond to emergencies.

“We are committed to looking at every single one of these threats,” said Garrity.

Officials also stressed the importance of not reposting threats but instead reporting them.

“Share it with law enforcement, share it with your school , share it with a responsible adult like a parent or guardian, but don’t just share it on social media and spread it because that is what we were really fighting, these events that were to be reposted,” said Eric Patten, chief communications officer for Yuma Union High School District.

With the recent threats causing anxiety in the community, school officials reassured parents and students at the forum that safety was paramount.

“Our school administrators, our school resource officers, and our security are operating with a heightened state of awareness and alertness,” said Henry Gonzalez, director of health and safety at the school district.

Gonzalez said students who needed extra support were given mental health resources.

“Being able to provide services, by the way of our social workers, to address their mental and emotional well being has been super important,” said Gonzalez.

As school officials navigate the school threats plaguing the nation, Patton said it is important to talk to children about how to handle these situations.

“It starts at home with conversations from the parents to the children. Children do spend a lot of time at school so we’ve been encouraging our staff to have positive conversations about how to handle a true threat, or a lock down or shelter in place situation,” said Patton.

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.

Copyright 2024 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.