A large drain on law enforcement sources occurred twice in the past week after 911 calls were made to Ceres Police dispatchers reporting impending shootings at two junior high school campuses, sending students and parents into a panic.
While both calls were treated as credible, both reports were unfounded. No shootings occurred.
Monday’s incident at Cesar Chavez Jr. High School stemmed from an unknown male indicating he was at the school and planning to engage in a mass shooting. Law enforcement had the campus completely cleared with every classroom and student checked in less than 20 minutes, said Ceres Police Chief Chris Perry.
The entire area of Whitmore between Boothe and Faith Home roads was shut down as Ceres Police, Stanislaus County Sheriff’s deputies and California Highway Patrol officers descended on the area. The campus was locked down as was that of neighboring La Rosa Elementary School.
Chief Perry said adding to the panic was a false report from a student claiming a gunman was in a classroom.
As word spread on social media and some students calling their parents, roads surrounding the Eastgate area became clogged with traffic.
Ceres Unified School District Supt. Denise Wickham and other officials quickly arrived on campus and were relieved to learn there was no shooting and the originating call appeared bogus. Wickham expressed appreciation at how quickly law enforcement responded and in large numbers.
A large police presence responded to the Mae Hensley Jr. High School campus as well as other school sites in Ceres on Tuesday, April 23 after an unknown male called police dispatchers after 11 a.m., saying he planned to shoot students at Mae Hensley Junior High School within 10 minutes. The campus was locked down as officers searched the campus and surrounding area.
Although the threat was deemed to be unsubstantiated, the source of the threat is still being investigated.
Chief Perry said police are unable to trace the bogus Mae Hensley caller because he dialed on a blocked number. Otherwise, the caller would be arrested and face charges.
Chief Perry said he’s unsure if the two calls were placed by the same person but said “it does seem like it’s kind of one of those hoax type calls, especially one the heels of last week.”
Perry himself was surprised to see a large presence from other agencies and was attempting to see if other agencies were mistaken in what was taking place.
“It may have come out on our end, hey we’re receiving a call of X, Y and Z but then it came out on their end like hey there’s an active shooting going on.”
He said Ceres Police were dispatched to the school while other agencies were dispatched to a shooting in Eastgate in general.
“By the time I left I saw a million people out there and half of them looked like they were parents to me that had shown up and honestly it just really added to the chaos,” said Perry. “If it wasn’t for the parents, that was a pretty easy scene out there if you ask me. Now you have a million parents wanting answers – and I don’t blame them, don’t get me wrong – but we have enough going on when those things happen and the parents just add to it.”
Chief Perry said much of the chaos originated from the students themselves.
“Every student has a cell phone on them. So these students are on lockdown procedure for their safety but every one of them is texting or calling family and they’re all giving a different rendition of what they think is going on. We actually had at one time a … parent called into our dispatch center that said they just got off the phone with their student and there was an active shooting occurring right now in her classroom. So the dispatcher relays that to us. Of course we hear no shots fired or anything so we know there’s no active shooting but we have to go check it out. So now we have to pull our resources and send them to that particular classroom and then, of course, there was nothing going on there. But that’s what these kids do; they make up stories or they put whatever narrative that they want on this kind of stuff and it can actually cause pandemonium.”
Perry said he was one of the first on scene and found out from administrators that there was no shooting taking place. Protocol called for lockdowns anyway while the campus was secured.
“From our standpoint we always have to err on the side of safety and give a response like that.”
Perry said his team will be meeting to see how future calls will be handled.
“We’re not trying to cause mass chaos like this amongst all these students and parents and media and everybody else over essentially false alarms.”
One idea is to call the school administration roll to ascertain if the report is accurate while patrol units roll.
“There might be other tactics that we can use to gather a quicker and accurate assessment before just rushing in and doing the school shooting protocol.”
The Ceres Unified School District issued a statement on Monday afternoon, reading: “Any threat against a school community is treated with the utmost seriousness. Additional social-emotional supports are available at Cesar Chavez Junior High and La Rosa Elementary School.
“We appreciate the rapid response of our local law enforcement and the support of families as we prioritized student and staff safety during today’s incident.”
Any person with information related to either incident is asked to contact Detective Matt Berlier at (209) 538-5616.
