Social media threat at Morro Bay High School prompts ‘increased police presence’ on campus
There was an “increased police presence” at the Morro Bay High School campus this week due to a potential threat made against a student, administrators said in an online notice to parents Thursday
According to the notice, shared to parents via app Parent Square, school administrators were notified Wednesday morning of a social media post that was interpreted as a threat toward an individual student, and indicated an incident would take place at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday.
“The Morro Bay Police Department was immediately contacted and an investigation into the creator of the post was initiated,” read the notice, signed by Principal Kyle Pruitt. “Increased police presence on our campus has been in place since early yesterday, December 4th and will continue through the entire day today, December 5th.”
Pruitt noted that the school had a “thoughtful and strategic plan for today that will ensure the safety of all students at MBHS.”
“Student and staff safety is, and always will be, our first priority,” he wrote.
No incident appeared to have happened at the school as of Thursday evening.
Requests for comment from Morro Bay Police Department and Morro Bay High School administrators were not returned Thursday night.
This is at least the fourth reported threat to be made at a San Luis Obispo County school in recent weeks.
Two of those threats — one at Laguna Middle School in San Luis Obispo and another at San Luis Obispo High School — were found to be TikTok-related pranks, warning of school shootings on specific days.
A 17-year-old boy was arrested in mid-November after making criminal threats on social media against Arroyo Grande High School.
When reached for comment, San Luis Coastal Unified School District Superintendent Eric Prater told The Tribune that the district — which includes Laguna Middle School and Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo high schools — takes each threat seriously.
“We continue to take each situation seriously,” he wrote in an email to Thursday evening. “However, I haven’t seen this pattern of online or graffiti-type student threats before.”
Prater said the district is doing several things to “build a safe culture in our district. Those include creating district safety teams with a safety consultant, threat assessment teams and protocols, more school counseling support, launching the Parent Square communication app and approving full-time contracts with local law enforcement agencies for school resource officers.
“These are challenging times in society and we’re keeping our channels of communication and awareness wide open with students, parents, and our law enforcement partners,” he added. “Our schools remain safe places despite these recent incidents.”
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