Bomb threats force evacuations at El Capitan High, county office

An email sent to staff at El Capitan High School and graffiti discovered in a bathroom at a county office prompted evacuations of both facilities Thursday, with officials saying they were compelled to take all possible threats seriously.

Law enforcement agencies searched the campus on Farmland Avenue and the Merced County Human Services Agency building without finding any dangerous devices.

Classes had not yet started Thursday when staff at the high school received a message warning that a bomb was set to explode. School officials immediately put the campus on lockdown, said Ralph Calderon, the assistant superintendent for human resources at Merced Union High School District.

As students arrived for school, they were redirected to the football field and later released for the day to go home. Buses en route to the school were directed to return students to their homes.

Merced police were investigating the source of the email, Lt. Andre Matthews said.

Thursday afternoon, Michelle Roe, deputy director of HSA, said she was alerted to writing on a bathroom wall that said “bombs here.” Roe investigated the graffiti, called 911 and pulled a fire alarm to quickly evacuate the building. All staff and clients were cleared from the facility by 1:15 p.m.

At HSA, Lt. Matt Williams said officers already were at the office shortly after 1 p.m. for reports of vandalism in a public bathroom.

Merced police, the Merced Fire Department and Merced County sheriff’s deputies all responded.

“It appeared to be nothing more than a bathroom joke,” Williams said of the graffiti.

Williams said police searched the building as a precautionary measure, but determined it safe.

“(We) don’t take any threat lightly,” Roe said.

It was not the first time this year Merced Union High School District initiated evacuation protocol because of a bomb threat. In late October, classes were canceled at Livingston High School due to a phone message warning of a bomb. A 16-year-old girl suspected of making the threat was arrested and sent to juvenile hall on felony charges.

Calderon, who said he has been in education for about 20 years, said he remembers a rash of “copycat” threats about 15 years ago, but there’s no pattern behind the threats.

“We live in interesting times,” he said. “Our stance is really to always be overly cautious. We’re always going to involve the authorities and have them use their training and expertise.”

Sheriff Vern Warnke said bomb threats are not treated any differently in 2015 than they were in the past: “We’ve never taken them lightly.”

With recent terrorist attacks and mass shootings in the news, Warnke did acknowledge that “we are on a heightened awareness.”

“Even if there’s a strong probability that it’s a joke, and everyone is going to laugh about it, just suppose something bad did happen,” he said. “We err on the side of caution.”

This story was originally published December 3, 2015 at 8:50 AM with the headline "Bomb threats force evacuations at El Capitan High, county office."