Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach will be closed for a second day Wednesday in response to a series of increasingly threatening social media posts, then reopen Thursday, according to principal Ben Dale.
School staff will spend this morning “putting together a plan that will facilitate a calm and orderly return,” Dale wrote in an email sent to parents and students Tuesday night. Staff also spent Tuesday night working on the plan, which will be sent to parents and students by mid-morning today, Dale wrote.
“We will be outlining orderly entry and exit, increased security and police presence, available counseling, what students will be allowed to bring and carry and what movement will be allowed on campus during class time,” Dale wrote.
The school was placed on lockdown for about an hour Monday, and security was stepped up, following an anonymous threat posted on the social media site Yik Yak.
The post read, “If you go to Costa you should watch out very closely at school today,” police said.
On Monday night, police — in consultation with Dale — notified parents that classes would be canceled Tuesday, after a second threat was posted, with the author indicating that Monday was just a “drill.”
The last in the series of missives issued via the social media site Monday night came shortly before 9 p.m., warning that most high school shooters had issued warnings before doing their deeds before, but no one ever noticed.
Officer Stephanie Martin of the Manhattan Beach Police Department pointed out that while the initial message did not seem so explicitly threatening, the last one could easily be interpreted that way.
Tuesday’s campus closure also forced cancellation of a planned scholar breakfast and all athletic and other after-school activities.
As part of the investigation, police were reaching out to Yik Yak for assistance in tracking down who made the threatening posts.
