‘Possible threat’ at SF high school

Classes continued as police evaluated threat coming from social media

Classes continued Friday at Santa Fe High School as police officers were there investigating a “possible threat” that originated on social media, a Santa Fe Public Schools spokesman said.

“We didn’t close the school because in working with the police department we felt we could investigate a possible threat without disrupting school,” SFPS spokesman Jeff Gephart said.

He said parents of SFHS students were notified of the situation by robocall, and that a few picked up their children, but classes went on as usual.

Santa Fe police spokesman Greg Gurulé said it appears the possible threat originated from a Snapchat post by a student in Springfield, Ohio. “Someone got hold of it and converted it to make it look like Santa Fe High,” he said.

The investigation comes after more than a dozen incidents at schools in 11 communities around New Mexico following last week’s mass shooting at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead. (See a story on page A1 with Bernalillo County District Attorney Raúl Torrez talking about threats to schools.)

Friday, Grants High School and Los Alamitos Middle School were closed as a precaution after unspecified threats targeted both schools, the Cibola County Sheriff’s Office told KRQE-TV. Sheriff Tony Mace said that a threat written on a bathroom urinal at Grants High Thursday was shared on Snapchat.

In Alamogordo, an Alamogordo High School student was taken into police custody for making what was perceived as a threat to the school. And a threat posted on Snapchat late Wednesday prompted Ruidoso School Superintendent George Bickert to request beefed up security from Ruidoso police at their high school and middle School Thursday and Friday.

Other threat-related incidents this week were at high and middle schools in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Santa Fe, Belen, Los Lunas, Las Cruces, Farmington, Kirtland and Española. Farmington police announced Friday it was increasing its presence in the city’s public schools for the rest of the school year.

Also Friday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed federal charges against two New Mexico men for using social media to post school threats. No schools were identified.

The FBI arrested Sebastian Jarvison, 25, of Brimhall, N.M., for Facebook posts allegedly including threats in McKinley County to “go shoot a school” or “put a bomb on a plane.” A separate complaint charged John Russell Williams, 19, of Farmington for replying to a school shooting threat on Facebook with a slang term that means “let’s do it.”