SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - For the second time this week, Rancho Bernardo High School Principal Dave LeMaster met with concerned parents Thursday regarding Monday's school threat.
Students arrived for class Monday morning to find violent threats spray-painted onto around 20 locations on campus. They all indicated a school shooting would happen that day at noon, with messages including "murder, blood, chaos" and "Florida was nothing".
LeMaster told 10News police arrived quickly and within minutes determined there was no credible threat.
An email notification went out to parents around 8:30am, after class had started, although LeMaster said if there was a danger, notification would have been sent out much sooner.
"We work with law enforcement to make sure the situation is secure and everyone is safe, and oftentimes, communication comes after that,” said Poway Unified School District spokesperson Christine Paik.
Word of the incident quickly spread among students and their family members, which provides a challenge for administrators to inform parents.
"In the age of social media and texting, sometimes those unofficial communications will beat us to it ," Paik said. "But we have a responsibility to be accurate before we are able to put out those messages.”
One parent told 10News she thinks the school should immediately notify parents of any threat to the school to give them the option of keeping their kids away from campus, but other parents worry that doing so could cause unnecessary panic and disruption.
PUSD said it will work on improving the time it takes to send notifications to parents. The district is currently working on adding a text message option for parents to receive such notifications.
10News reached out to the San Diego Police Department for an update on its investigation into the threats, but has not heard back.
