Lolita Harper and Marisa O'Neil
Many on the Corona del Mar High School campus are thankful this week
that a student's threat of violence, reported to have been issued
Wednesday, was thwarted by the quick actions of students, parents and
officials.
Police and school officials confirmed Wednesday that a Corona del
Mar High School student made a "terrorist threat" last Friday.
Newport Beach police Sgt. Steve Shulman said his department was
investigating the threat but did not identify the boy and refused to
confirm if the student had been taken into custody.
"We can't release the name of the student because he is a
juvenile," Shulman said. "We can't go into the details of the threat
or what statements were made because there is an investigation going
on."
Robert Barbot, the superintendent of the Newport-Mesa Unified
School District, was equally unspecific.
"It was simply a threat," the superintendent said. "We are not
happy about it, but it was just a threat."
Barbot said he heard the threat was made via the Internet but had
yet to confirm it. A student who had received the threat reported it
to school officials, and middle school Principal Brook Booth took
appropriate actions, Barbot said.
"We are doing an investigation ourselves," Barbot said. "A student
made some threats. There was no reality to it. There was a rumor of a
gun, but that wasn't the case."
No gun was brought on campus, and no further action was taken by
the student after the initial threat, Barbot said. The parents of the
boy were very cooperative, he said.
The issue raised the concerns of other parents, who happened to
hear about the incident from their children or other parents.
Officials did not formally notify parents of the threat.
A Corona del Mar father, whose asked not to be identified because
his son was allegedly listed as a target of the attack, said other
parents called him the weekend of Nov. 21 to warn him of possible
threats against his son. He immediately got on the phone with the
Newport Beach Police and got in touch with the detective handling the
case. He said he was hungry for any information he could get about
his son's safety and was disappointed that this shocking news came
from a friend, not an official from the district or the police
department.
"I've been on the phone with the police way too much lately," he
said.
Jill Money, president of the Corona del Mar Parent Teacher Assn.,
had also heard about the threat through a network of parents and
