Local school officials and Chief Dyer send swift warning after back-to-back threats online

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Two school superintendents joined with Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer Thursday to send a swift warning. Fresno Unified Superintendent Michael Hanson stressed Thursday if you make a threat to cause violence on a school campus you will get caught.

"Students are saying things on social media that they think are either cute funny a joke or somehow aren't going to be taken seriously."

Hanson said the threats send police officers and school officials scurrying to find out if the threat is real and protect students and staff. Dyer said their dispatch center has been inundated with calls from concerned parents over the last week.

The series of threats began last Thursday when a student called in a bomb threat to Bullard High School evacuating the entire school. Then over the last three days, three separate social media threats starting with a Monday night threat by a 14-year-old Roosevelt High School student.

"Individual said they had the intentions of shooting up several high school and those high schools were listed as Edison, Roosevelt, and Fresno high school," said Dyer.

Dyer said the 14-year-old Roosevelt student apparently made the threats because she was upset at an Edison High student.

Two days later another 14-year-old Roosevelt student was the next one to make a social media threat. She too was arrested and Dyer said this student was upset over a relationship she had with another female student.

"There was a disagreement between these two females and that disagreement was over hickeys on a neck, something that silly that caused this and prompted this kind of fear."

The two students were arrested for felony charges for making terrorist threats and are facing up to three years in prison.

Wednesday night two students from Kerman High School-- arrested for copying the style in which the Fresno Unified students threats were made. Kerman police announcing overnight the two students are now in jail facing felony charges.

Central Unified's Superintendent Mark Sutton echoed Dyer's and Hanson's warnings. He said the panic has spread to his district as well and encouraged parents to have a tough talk with their kids about social media.

"We cannot emphasize enough how important it is for parents to become actively involved in not only what they're posting, but what they're looking at as well."

Chief Dyer said they are still investigating the threat made to Bullard as well as a post made this week on Instagram that threatened Scandinavian Middle School in Fresno.

Over the next few months, the police department and local school officials will also be banning together to shoot a public service announcement about the consequences of these types of threats.