Threats Made At Rancho Bernardo High: Police Detain 3 Students

POWAY, CA — Several unfounded threats of gun violence centering on Rancho Bernardo High School prompted a several-hour lockdown at the campus and adjacent Bernardo Heights Middle School Thursday while authorities investigated and determined that there was no such violence in the offing.

The security alerts went into effect at the Paseo Lucido campuses at about noon, after a threatening handwritten note was found in a restroom at the secondary school, according to San Diego police.

Administrators kept all students and staffers secured in their classrooms and offices while officers searched the high school, finding no weapons or other hazards. The lockdown was lifted about 2 p.m., Poway Unified School District spokeswoman Christine Paik said.

Investigators determined that a separate menacing message regarding Rancho Bernardo High had been issued Wednesday on the social-media application Snapchat, SDPD Capt. Stephanie Rose told reporters.

It was not immediately clear if the person or people behind the online posting -- which included a photo of an airsoft pellet gun resembling a real firearm -- also was responsible for the bathroom note, which claimed that a "boy" would carry out a shooting at the school at 1:10 Thursday afternoon, the captain said.

Two 18-year-old RBHS students subsequently were taken into custody on suspicion of being involved with the Snapchat threat, and a 16-year-old boy was detained for allegedly taking a photo of the restroom message and passing it onto a 15-year-old fellow student, along with a statement asserting that he hoped she would be a victim of the supposed planned shooting.

The three suspects were questioned and then turned over to their parents, Rose said. It was not immediately clear if the youths will face criminal charges in the case, the captain told news crews.

Patch will update this breaking story when new information arrives.

Image via Shutterstock

--City News Service contributed to this report