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Antelope Valley College Closes Campuses Over Threats Students Received
Antelope Valley College closed its campuses today after students said they received threats via text message.
The college announced this morning on its website and Facebook that the main campus and separate office in Lancaster would be closed, as well as a satellite location in Palmdale, CBS Los Angeles reports. The note read that the closure was due to a "threat of violence against the college," that school officials were working closely with law enforcement. The college later announced that they would reopen and classes would resume at 6 p.m., according to City News Service.
The school's spokeswoman Elizabeth Diachun said in a press conference today that a few of their students received text messages overnight with a "general threat of violence" on the college campuses, and that the threats were also posted on social media. The texts said things like "Something terrible is going to happen," Los Angeles County Sheriff's Lt. Derrick Alsred told KTLA.
"Last night, students received text messages warning them not to attend classes. We rolled out this morning, and at this time we do not believe the threats are credible, but the safety of the students is paramount, and we are handling (the situation) as such," Sheriff's Deputy Joshau Stamsek told City News Service.
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The Sheriff's Department has increased deputy presence on the campuses.
Over the past month, other college campuses in the United States also faced threats, prompting investigations. A person claiming to be a University of Missouri student posted a death threat towards black people at Howard University in Washington, D.C. This followed the arrest of a man who allegedly posted messages to social media site Yik Yak threatening that he would "shoot every black person I see" at University of Missouri. The University of Chicago cancelled its classes this week after the FBI warned the school of an online threat of gun violence directed towards the campus. A 21-year-old man was arrested for the threat.
Last year, a Manhattan Beach high school was shut down for two days because someone made vague threats on the anonymous messaging app Yik Yak.
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