Extra police officers were at Selma High School on Tuesday after rumors a student was planning to shoot teachers and classmates. Word started circulating on Facebook on Monday night.
"i just started getting calls and messages from other parents with the same concerns, and it just spread like wild fire," said Leslie Martinez, a parent.
Parents alerted authorities. Selma Police Chief Myron Dyck says investigators worked all night to track down information. When they went to the alleged suspect's home, he said he didn't even know about the rumors.
"[The alleged suspect] had no knowledge of the threat. The family and the student didn't appear to have any access to any weapons," said Dyck.
The chief also said the alleged threat started as a text message, then made its way onto social media.
"Like that old game where you used to sit around in a circle and you start with one person with the information and by the time it makes it around, the entire message has changed," said Dyck.
While police and district officials were investigating, parents were worried sick.
"I don't think my daughter should come to school wondering, 'Am I going to survive today or not?'" said Connie Samora, a parent.
Out of 1,700 students at the high school, about 500 were absent Tuesday. Many parents expressed anger because the district didn't address the incident before school. A mass message went out around 11am.
"We wanted to wait until we had some factual information because a lot of times on social media there's a lot of inaccurate information," said Mark Sutton, Selma Unified Superintendent.
Some social media posts only said "SHS," so Sanger Unified sent out messages to its parents clarifying that the rumored threat was at Selma High School, not Sanger.
Police still do not know where the rumor originated and what the intent was behind it.
