YPD investigates possible threats against Cibola High
The Yuma Police Department, along with Yuma Union High School District officials, are investigating threats made on social media that possibly targeted one of the area’s high schools, however campuses throughout the city remained open Wednesday.
According to officer Janet Sanchez, early Wednesday morning YPD received information from an unnamed outside source regarding anonymous and generic social media threats to a non-specific location bearing the initials “CHS.”
YPD did not identify the source it had received the information from.
Then at approximately 7:30 a.m. officials from the Yuma Union High School District and Cibola High School met with YPD regarding what precautions should be taken.
Sanchez said they don’t
know when and from where the threat originated, and it has not been established if the “CHS” referred to in the threats is even Cibola High School in Yuma or some other school within the state or country that can also be identified with the same initials.
“Since we just don’t know, we wanted to be extra cautious,” Sanchez said. “All threats are taken seriously.”
As a precaution, there was an increased police presence on the Cibola campus, Sanchez said. Cibola High School administration also issued a news release about the proposed threats and advised parents that they could come and pick up their children if they wished.
Unsure of the seriousness of the threats, parents arrived in droves at Cibola to check their children out of school, which resulted in extensive traffic problems and delays in and around the area.
Among those parents was Nolena Lorena Nolasco, whose child is a junior.
“Because it’s a threat,” Lorena Nolasco said. “I mean, it could be fake, it could be real, but I don’t want to take the chance — my child is too precious.”
Nolasco was one of about 200 parents in a line that stretched past the school’s security gate.
Many parents came to the school because they could not reach registrars, as the phone lines were busy.
Later in the morning, District Superintendent Gina Thompson and administrators decided to dismiss all of the students at 12:30 p.m., as so many had already been picked up, the district said. Extracurricular activities were not canceled and the absences were excused.
Parents waiting in line said they had received a message from the district between 8:30 and 9 a.m.
“I just got it like at 9 in the morning,” said parent Irin Lopez, who was concerned for her child. “I don’t know what the threat is, though.”
By 9:20 a.m. the campus was swamped with vehicles and parents parking and walking to the school.
Nolasco said her son told her that she could call and have him released from school, but the phone lines were busy. She said she texted him to stay in class until she arrived.
“I know that phones are saturated, but he told me I could call him out of school, but I’ve left messages to all the registrars,” she said from the Cibola Athletic Complex behind the school. “I didn’t want to run the risk of them getting the message and letting him out and me not finding him.”
As a result of the traffic, motorists who were driving through the area of Avenue C and 20th Street were advised to seek alternate routes.
Sanchez said more information will be released as it becomes available.