LAKEPORT, Calif. – Lakeport Police and Lakeport Unified School District officials hosted a community meeting Thursday night in an effort to offer more information and answer questions about a bomb hoax at the district last week.
Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen and Lakeport Unified Superintendent Erin Hagberg led the hour-and-a-half-long meeting attended by more than 70 people at Lakeport Elementary School.
Community leaders and officials who attended included Lakeport Mayor Martin Scheel, city council members Stacey Mattina and Mireya Turner, Lakeport Unified Board President Phil Kirby, Clear Lake High School Principal Steve Gentry, Lake County Office of Emergency Services Manager Marisa Chilafoe, and Lakeport Police Lt. Jason Ferguson, acting Sgt. Gary Basor and Officer Tyler Trouette.
Shortly before 2 p.m. Jan. 14, two threat calls were made to Clear Lake High School. According to police, the calls – made from a Skype default number assigned to Bakersfield – threatened that someone was coming to the school with an Uzi machine gun and that at 5 p.m. that day chemicals and bombs would be dropped at the school.
Police determined the calls to be hoaxes and at that point no action was taken to lockdown the campus or notify parents.
That night, the bomb threat took another turn.
Hagberg told Lake County News that the janitors saw a suspicious person in dark clothing on the campus that night and subsequently found packages – which police said were three boxes wrapped with plastic and black tape – near the Marge Alakszay Center.
Shortly before 8:45 p.m. police were dispatched back to the district campus on the report of those found packages, police said.
Over the next several hours Lakeport Police – assisted by the Lake County Sheriff's Office, Lakeport Fire Department, Lakeport Public Works Department and the Napa County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Squad – secured the campus, with the bomb squad performing controlled explosions on the packages, which were determined not to be bombs.
Basor said at the Thursday meeting that after Lakeport Unified's schools were cleared, Lake County Sheriff's deputies then went to all schools in the county to search them and make sure they were cleared.
On the morning of Jan. 15, police secured a search warrant that was served at a north Lakeport home, where two 17-year-old brothers were arrested on felony counts of terrorist threats, threatening to place a bomb at the location and placing a false bomb at the location, and a misdemeanor charge of possession of a lethal weapon on school grounds, as Lake County News has reported.
Police are continuing to investigate the threat calls, reporting that similar calls were made from the same Skype number to high schools in Oceanside, Calif., in Michigan and Marysville, Wash. – the latter having been the site of a fatal school shooting last October.
Rasmussen told Lake County News on Thursday that the two juvenile suspects remained in custody, with the case forwarded to the District Attorney’s Office.
He also confirmed that the investigation – which is continuing – involves local law enforcement agencies in several states and federal authorities.
Hagberg informed parents at the Thursday meeting that the recently passed $17 million school bond will make possible one of the district’s long-time security goals – installing security cameras on the campus.
Explaining the response
“I want you to know how grateful we are that last week's incident was a hoax and fortunately nobody was harmed,” Hagberg told parents and community members.
“There's a lot of emotion around this topic tonight because we all love our kids and the possibility of school violence is terribly frightening,” she said.
She emphasized that the district takes very seriously its responsibility to keep its students safe.
Rasmussen said the meeting wasn't necessary to discuss the specifics of the investigation – which he said was ongoing, with details still privileged – but rather was an opportunity to discuss the police department’s and the district's efforts to review the response and school safety plans, and make necessary adjustments.
“We want to do that in the interest of protecting our students today, tomorrow and into the future,” he said.
Hagberg gave a review of the district's safety plan, which she said every district in the state is required to have in place. What's unique about Lakeport Unified is that all of its schools are on one campus – which Hagberg considers a plus.
She said every one of the district's schools is responsible for creating its own safety plan, with the schools conducting evacuation, intruder and fire drills on a regular basis, sometimes independent and sometimes in coordination with the rest of the district.
The district's safety committee meets once a month, Hagberg said. They are now talking about adding a teacher to the group, which occasionally hosts a member of law enforcement. Student members from the junior and high schools have been added, as Hagberg said a student perspective is important.
Over the last few years the school district has made safety upgrades, which Hagberg said included installing new door knobs so teachers can quickly lock doors, as well as classroom window coverings in case of a lockdown.
School intercoms and phone systems are checked regularly, staffers wear identification picture badges and visitors – including parents simply stopping by to drop off a lunch – are asked to sign in with administration and get a visitor badge, Hagberg said.
In describing the bomb hoax that occurred on Jan. 14, Hagberg noted, “The police department stepped in very quickly, and I'm grateful for that.”
At around 1:45 p.m. Jan. 14, Clear Lake High School received the first of the two threat calls, with the second call coming in shortly afterward, Hagberg said.
Hagberg and Gentry were out of the office, so the threat was handled by the assistant principal and secretary. “The first thing they did was they called the police” Hagberg said.
Rasmussen said the investigation is ongoing. “There is a considerable amount of work still pending,” he said, explaining that just because an arrest has been made doesn't mean the investigation is over.
He said a Lakeport Police officer who was dispatched to the school on the report of the threat made contact with the administration and, based on the credibility and context of the threats, determined that an evacuation of the school was not necessary.
“We're always going to consider the safety of the school and the students, that's No. 1,” Rasmussen said.
Police quickly determined that the number used to place the threat class was a cyber trunk number, or a ghost number, that isn't tied to anyone or any particular place, just a location. In this case, Rasmussen said the location the number was tied to was Bakersfield, with the number in question commonly used by cybercriminals for scams and hoax threats.
Assessing the risk
Basor, Lakeport Police's emergency response expert, explained the threat assessment process that was used.
When such an incident occurs, Basor said police use several matrixes to assess the threat, with the process offering different courses of action.
At the time the janitors found the packages, Basor – who was first on scene in response to the package discovery – said the school was unoccupied, other than janitorial staff and a few students. He said that the staff and few remaining students were told to leave immediately and police created safety zones.
Rasmussen said police set up inner and outer perimeters, including an 1,800-foot safety perimeter around the school, with streets monitored or blocked. He said they knew that if it was a real bomb, that perimeter was large enough that it couldn't reach the community.
With the situation taking place late at night, “We didn't want to create panic,” said Rasmussen, who explained that there were concerns about putting out information and having people coming to the scene. “We could not risk that.”
Police instead concentrated on dealing with the packages, including requesting the Napa County Bomb Squad to come and examine them. After an hour-and-a-half-long assessment, the bomb squad couldn't be sure the items were not bombs, and so they carried out controlled explosions to render them safe, Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen explained during the meeting that the controlled explosion allows police to still recover evidence – if the item isn't an actual bomb.
He said police got a lead and enough evidence that they were confident they knew where the packages came from, so they set about writing a search warrant. By that point it was early on the morning of Jan. 15, and Rasmussen said police didn't want to put out information while they were tracking a suspect and risk losing evidence.
Police also were on the phone all night with Hagberg, keeping her up-to-date on the developments, he said.
Throughout the night they were considering whether school should be closed Jan. 15, but ultimately they were confident that there was no danger to the school or students, Rasmussen said.
Hagberg said the decision on whether or not there would be school that day ultimately was the district's, and once police assured her it was safe she believed having school take place was the best thing.
Part of the training she's had in assessing risk to schools in such circumstances, Hagberg explained, is that it's best not to let a hoax interrupt school. “That is part of the intent of a hoax” – to cause fear and cancel school, she said.
Basor said the school was thoroughly searched and cleared with the help of the Napa County Bomb Squad. He said he had concluded the school was safe, and told Ferguson that closing school wasn't necessary.
As for moving forward and lessons learned, Hagberg said she is glad to have had the experience in order to know what to do different next time.
She expressed her gratitude to the Lakeport Police Department as well as to the two school custodians who found the packages and quickly reported them.
Hagberg said she also was glad the hoax didn't interrupt the learning environment, noting it was important for students to be able to move on.
She's since met with school site principals, the district safety committee, staff and police, and fielded calls and emails from parents. As a result they're identifying process changes.
The main feedback Hagberg said she got back was not so much about safety risk as a lack of communication, with parents expressing their desire to have been notified sooner.
Subsequently, the district has reviewed its school messenger system and realized it didn't have a lot of accurate phone numbers and emails for parents, so they're looking at establishing an additional text message system. Using a combination of all of those messaging systems, Hagberg said they hope to reach everyone.
Hagberg said the district also is subscribing to a tip line that will allow children and adults to report threats or suspicious incident anonymously.
The district also will be sending out a survey to parents to ask them how they believe school safety can be improved.
Rasmussen said police and district officials wanted to hear the people's concerns, and he encouraged community members to continue to work with the police and the school in the interest of safety.
“If you see something, say something,” he said.
He said sometimes people are hesitant to report things, believing they're wasting police's time. However, Rasmussen said that isn't true, and such information could be helpful.
Fielding questions
During the meeting's last hour, officials fielded questions submitted on index cards from community members, with some people asking questions directly from the audience at the end of the event.
A number of those questions asked pointedly about aspects of the investigation and the suspects, with Rasmussen answering what he could be declining to give specifics due to concerns for protecting the police work still under way.
Among the questions, Rasmussen was asked if Lakeport Police and the Lake County Sheriff's Office receive active shooter training. Rasmussen said yes, adding, “I will tell you that training needs to be updated,” which they're working on now. He said officers also have had training on dealing with suspicious packages.
In response to a similar question later in the meeting, Rasmussen said his agency has submitted an application to send two officers to an active shooter instructor school at a federal training center in Georgia. If the application is approved, once those officers are trained, they will be able to train other local officers.
Another person asked why parents aren't part of the district safety committee, which Hagberg said was a good suggestion.
There were several index cards submitted that asked the same question or a variation of it regarding why parents weren't notified.
Hagberg said one of the things she would do differently is call people earlier in the process. She also explained during the meeting that a glitch in the district's all-call messenger system resulted in the notification not going out to staff when it was sent to parents.
Another oft-repeated question regarded why the schools weren't locked down or evacuated when the phone calls came in on the afternoon of Jan. 14.
Rasmussen said that was because police concluded that the threats were part of a hoax – they weren’t specific to a location or individuals – and that it was best to leave the children where they were.
He said hoaxes from such machine-generated online numbers are used to create fear.
“The bottom line is, we did not feel it was credible, we did not feel there was any danger,” Rasmussen said.
Answering a similar question about not issuing warnings at the high school that afternoon, Gentry said hindsight is 20/20, and if the same scenario occurred again, many things would be done differently to communicate with staff and parents.
Rasmussen also emphasized that the original phone call did not lead police to believe anything would happen, so “We were surprised to get a report on those packages.”
“The odd thing about this incident is that is became more complicated as the evening went on,” said Gentry, after it went from calls to packages found.
He added, “The scariest thing is the unknown, not the known,” explaining that it's not the case that threats called in to schools are then carried out. Generally, incidents just happen without warning.
Basor and Rasmussen, in answering other questions, would agree with Gentry, that few explosions usually have associated warning calls.
“Generally, they don't tell you what they're going to do,” said Rasmussen, although he said people who are responsible for such incidents have behavioral indicators that those close to them may notice.
Asked if the threat calls are believed to be part of a larger network, Rasmussen said yes, with that network threatening multiple schools.
He said there is someone out there who is getting pleasure out of seeing a response due to placing fear in people. “It's terrible that we have to worry about that.”
There was a question about what can be done at the student body level, and Hagberg responded that establishing a positive school culture is a way to diminish destructive behaviors. That includes clubs and other activities. The district also has expanded counseling services.
Another person asked why the students who were arrested are being charged with making a bomb, since the suspicious boxes weren't actually explosive devices.
Ferguson explained that California penal code makes creating a facsimile bomb a crime. Hagberg added that California education code allows for the expulsion of students who bring something that appears to be a weapon – but really isn't – to school.
Rasmussen said that for 17 years there has been a school resource officer at Lakeport Unified, although budget cuts have prevented that position from being filled for the last year and a half.
He said the district, police department and Lakeport City Council have all committed to having that school resource officer position filled again. Lakeport Police has submitted a grant application to the US Department of Justice to help fund it, with the necessary additional funding to come from the district and city.
The school resource officer position is important both from a safety standpoint and from the relationship it helps police build with the district's children, Rasmussen said.
Community member Pete McRae, who has a master's degree in international conflict resolution, said there are three basic types of terrorist organizations, and he suggested the one at work in Lakeport's case is a lone wolf.
One of the ways such people are caught is if law enforcement gets a tip. He encouraged people to report anything suspicious and to be alert.
“We don't think it can happen here,” said McRae, adding that it can.
One parent rose to thank the officials. “It must have been absolutely scary,” she said, adding that she hopes everyone can learn from it and come together to find more solutions.
Officials stayed for a short time afterward to answer individual questions from parents.
Below is a video of the meeting in its entirety.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.