School lockdowns in Beverly Hills, San Clemente caused by hoaxes
Two Southern California high schools were placed on lockdown Thursday as police investigated a bomb threat and a call of a student being held hostage at gunpoint. The two unrelated reports were deemed hoaxes by authorities.
Beverly Hills police received a call about 2:45 p.m. from a person claiming to be a 16-year-old being held hostage by a man with a gun at Beverly Hills High School, said Lt. Lincoln Hoshino.
Though many students had already gone home, those who remained were placed on lockdown while officers conducted a full search of the campus. No evidence of a gun or hostage was found, Hoshino said.
“We determined the call was a hoax,” he said.
San Clemente High School was placed on lockdown shortly after 9 a.m. after an anonymous bomb threat was posted on the social networking app Yik Yak.
Students and staff were told to shelter in place while a bomb squad conducted a sweep of the campus, said Lt. Jeff Hallock, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
The lockdown was lifted about 1 p.m. after the sweep found no evidence of explosives.
In a third unrelated incident Thursday, Peach Hill Academy, an elementary school in Moorpark, was locked down as Ventura County sheriff’s deputies searched for a man with a gun reported in the area.
A suspect was taken into custody and school was dismissed for the day, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement posted online.
Twitter: @tonybarboza
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