LANCASTER – Daytime classes were canceled and Antelope Valley College was closed Tuesday, Dec. 1, because of “unsubstantiated threats,” school officials said.
The closure of all three of the college’s campuses — in Lancaster, Palmdale and at Fox Field — began about 8 a.m.
College spokeswoman Liz Diachun said that sometime overnight, “nonspecific threats of violence” were posted on social media and also sent to “a few students.” The students contacted law enforcement around midnight, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Kit Gruppie.
“[Deputies] responded to several calls for service from students that attend Antelope Valley College in regards to threatening text messages they received about some sort of incident that was going to occur today [Dec. 1] on campus,” Gruppie said. “Sheriff’s personnel then forwarded that information to Antelope Valley College staff and they made the ultimate decision to shut down the campus.”
“So far, while we’ve been here, we haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary and we have increased deputy personnel on campus,” Gruppie added.
The college later announced that sheriff’s investigators had conducted a sweep and classes at all campuses would resume at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 1.
“We put the safety and security of staff and students first,” Diachun said.
She had no details about the specific nature of the threats or how many students received them directly via text messaging.
UPDATE: According to a news release from the Lancaster Sheriff’s Station, “the text message made a vague threat and told the students to stay home from school.”
“Additional resources were assigned to investigate the threat made and ensure a safe campus. At this time, deputies do not believe the threats to be credible but are still investigating and will have an increased presence on both the Lancaster campus and the Palmdale campus,” the news release states. Read it here.
–
Lola says
I hope the person got arrested things like this should be taken seriously
Joan Rivers says
I guess someone needed an extra day to study for finals!
Lancaster commuter says
This must have been a student that had a big assignment due and did not want to go to class.
Lionel says
So were there any arrests made?
Whats going on with that? Who
did the texts come from?
Tm says
Very sad how people can’t even continue their education to get a decent career and make a living because of threats made by idiots…waste of time…wtf….can’t do anything normal because violence takes over society these days…very sad….so sick of hearing about crime.murder.hate…its getting old..enjoy life and be thankful that u even get one..stop trying to end others hopes and dreams..and reality
Michael says
Uh, maybe she should work on not being so pronounce with use of the word Uh. I find no comfort in the fact that they could not track down where this threat came from. The threat was vague and was posted as screen shot of a text conversation, so its likely a hoax. Still, they should be able to catch this idiot otherwise he/she is likely to do it again…