UPDATE (6 p.m.) - Lucia Mar Unified School District Superintendent Paul Fawcett, released the following statement Tuesday afternoon:
As Superintendent, I understand every parent’s concern that the schools of the Lucia Mar Unified School District remain safe.
Yesterday, the District was alerted to some messages and images circulating on social media which were concerning. We immediately contacted local law enforcement and worked closely with them to investigate to determine whether any of these communications presented a credible threat of violence directed at any of our local schools. Law enforcement determined there was no credible threat of violence and they did not originate in our district and were not directed at our schools.
We were then alerted to a different potential threat circulating on social media, that was also investigated and determined not to be a threat. This second potential threat involved an image circulating on social media of a district student holding a gun with the message “Watch out AGHS he aint playing.” The student’s parent has given consent for the District to release the following information from our investigation:
- The student did not personally post the photo on social media.
- The student did not write the message attached to the photo.
- The photo was taken more than a year ago and was not taken for the purpose of threatening anyone.
The laws protecting the confidentiality of student information do not allow the District to release any further details. I know this can be frustrating. However, I want to assure parents that Arroyo Grande High School and the District took these incidents very seriously and has and will take all appropriate steps to ensure a safe school environment for all our students. The safety of our students and staff remains our top priority.
Thank you for your understanding,
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(8:30 a.m.) - Students at Arroyo Grande High School reported a social media threat to the school Monday.
School administrations say that once they received communication regarding the threat they began working with local authorities and the FBI to investigate the reports.
Parents of students at the high school reached out to KSBY with their concerns. They reported the threat circulated over Instagram and Snapchat of a student holding a gun and saying quote "watch out AGHS he ain't playing".
The Arroyo Grande Police Department, along with the FBI upon further investigation determined that there is no credible threat to the safety of the school, according to school officials.
"We are so proud of our students for immediately reporting their concerns and while these threats were not credible, we are glad to know that our students take the safety of our school seriously," said officials with the Lucia Mar Unified School District.
Police told KSBY that they were in cooperation with the Lucia Mar School District when the threats surfaced.
Police say the images brought to the school's attention were not threats to Arroyo Grande High School but threats made to a different school out of state about a week ago. That incident had already been resolved. Police say a second image surfaced while they were investigating and they were able to quickly determine that the image was from more than a year ago and served no threat to the campus.
