Beaumont, CA - Overnight the Beaumont Police Department was contacted about reports of threats to schools within the Beaumont Unified School District.
The first report was of a social media post that was circulating among students, the post included a screenshot of a message telling students to “prepare for what's to come tomorrow at “BHS”. It was quickly determined that the message being circulated was a version of the same message that had circulated in schools across the United States in 2018. The message had come from a student who attended “Belen High School” in New Mexico and was arrested for those threats in 2018. At the time our department and various other departments across the country who also had a “BHS” within their cities, had communicated about the circulation of the message, you can see our previous posts about this message here:
A second report involved a FaceTime call to a group of students, made by a 13 year old student from a local middle school. One of the students who had received the FaceTime call reported to officers they saw what they believed to be a rifle in the background and that the student who contacted them had spoken about a “hit list”. Officers began an investigation and quickly identified the student and conducted a Student Threat Assessment and Response (STAR) protocol at the student’s home. Officers located a rifle style pellet gun and documents that contained a list of names the student was upset with. Officers determined the student had attempted to seek assistance from a suicide hotline and had reported having suicidal thoughts. The student was transported to a local hospital for evaluation, we have no reason to believe there is an active threat to the school or students at this time.
We understand these incidents are concerning and add additional anxiety to parents, students, school district staff and our community. Especially in light of the tragedy that occurred in Texas this week, as well as the additional reports of threats at schools from yesterday. We would like to thank our citizens for reporting these incidents and making the extra efforts to keep our community safe.
As we go forward into the next few days and even into next week with the many planned end of school year activities and graduation events, we want to encourage our residents to continue to be vigilant, report suspicious or concerning behavior to law enforcement and/or school district administrators and to help us keep our students and community safe.
Our officers were on school district campuses again this morning to be visible and help assure parents the safety of our students, schools and community are a top priority.