By Kevin Nelson
Special to the Herald

More than 100 parents and residents attended a special meeting Tuesday at Benicia High School hosted by Principal Brianna Kleinschmidt, police and school district officials who sought to reassure parents that the school was safe and to answer questions related to Monday’s lockdown after a Benicia High freshman made threats of violence on social media.
“Hopefully we will dispel some of the rumors about yesterday,” Kleinschmidt said. “We welcome your input and comments to help us make this the most safe school it can be.”
Kleinschmidt began her remarks by reciting a timeline of events that led to the lockdown, beginning with her receiving a call at 9:30 a.m. from an associate about a threat of violence from a student that appeared on the messaging site Kik. Screenshots of the messages were texted to her, and she contacted Officer Marjonne Roberson, the school resource officer for Benicia police on campus who was also at the meeting, and the Benicia police.
An investigation was immediately begun, and it was found that five or six students had been involved in the group text in which the threats were made. The threat was deemed to be of sufficient seriousness that a lockdown was ordered just before the end of second period, Kleinschimdt said.
Rather than release the students for snack time, which was the next scheduled activity, teachers and students remained in their classrooms for about an hour, until the police investigation was concluded, the student who made the threats was detained, and the campus was determined to be safe. Most of the 1,600 students on campus, upset by events, left school shortly after being let out of the lockdown, many of them being picked up by parents who drove to the school equally upset and concerned about their child’s safety.
“There were no weapons found,” Kleinschmidt told the audience, responding to reports that appeared on news websites and social media. “There were no lists. There were no targets. We resolved that it wasn’t anything more than a threat on a text message.”
Nonetheless many parents peppered Kleinschmidt, Roberson and school district officials with questions, especially on the matter of communication with parents during and after the lockdown. Several of the attendees also had words of praise for Benicia High staff and officials and how they handled the incident, which ended with no one hurt.
The most pointed questions focused on the confusion that was caused when another boy was taken out of class, reportedly in handcuffs, because police suspected him of being the one who had made the threats. This first boy pulled out of class had “absolutely no involvement” in the incident, said Kleinschmidt.
Roberson explained that police protocol in these cases was to first act swiftly, adjusting its response as it learns more about the full measure of the threat they are facing. This was why the police acted in this manner with the first boy, he said.
During the lockdown, as the police investigation continued, they quickly came to focus on the boy who did make the threats. He was detained and removed from class and brought under police custody, and he admitted his guilt in the affair.
The series of messages sent by the boy referred to a “school shooting” and possible “suicide” in the afternoon, officials said. None of these messages named any potential victims and if such a list had existed, those on the list would have been notified immediately, Officer Roberson said.
One widely circulated rumor said that the boy who made the threats had not yet been detained when the lockdown was declared over, thus opening up students to a potential danger. This was not true, police said. The boy was in custody before they issued the all-clear order.
“There was only one student who made a threat, and that student admitted to it,” Kleinschmidt said. Several other students were involved in the group text in which the threats were made, but none of these students had anything to do with the threats, she said.
“It was not going to be a group event,” she said.
One of the students in the group text was the person who alerted authorities to the boy.
“The way we heard about this, a student made a report,” Kleinschmidt said, strongly urging parents to encourage their children to potentially do the same: If they see threats of this kind or bullying or anti-social behavior on social media, to let their parents or school officials know about it.
The boy who made the threats was suspended for five days by Benicia High. He will likely be expelled by the school district for a year, at which point by law he has the right to return to the school, according to school board officials who spoke at the meeting.
Police confiscated his cellphone and searched his locker and belongings. With the consent of his parents, they also searched his home. No gun was found there or anywhere else, the police said.
Kleinschmidt and other school officials talked a great deal about the desire to improve their crisis communications with parents. They also said that getting accurate information to people quickly was the best way to combat rumors from being spread online.
“Most of the information online was not true,” she said.
Benicia High planned to hold a general meeting with students about the incident later Tuesday, and another one for parents in the evening who could not make it to the morning session.

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