An eighth-grader was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of making an online threat of violence targeting an East County secondary school, one of two San Diego-area campuses subjected to recent threatening messages.
A statement posted anonymously on Burnbook.com about 12:30 a.m. made reference to some sort of apparently unsubstantiated threat against El Cajon Valley High School, prompting a heightened police presence at the East Madison Avenue campus.
Using “a variety of investigative techniques,” detectives tracked down the alleged perpetrator, who attends a nearby middle school, El Cajon police Lt. Randy Soulard said.
The student, whose identity was withheld, was arrested and booked into juvenile hall on suspicion of issuing a criminal threat.
“The eighth-grader had no known connection to the high school, and police do not believe there was any actual danger to anyone at either school,” the lieutenant said.
The threat came a few hours after another Burnbook posting that made cryptic reference to guns and Mission Hills High School in San Marcos. That message also led to heightened security measures at the involved campus, sheriff’s Lt. Jerry Hartman said.
As of late this afternoon, a juvenile suspect in the North County case had been identified. The youth, a 14-year-old Mission Hills High student whose name also was withheld, was not immediately arrested, and authorities had yet to determine whether criminal charges would be warranted.
The two cases were not believed to be related, Hartman said.
Burnbook, a popular cellphone application, has “evolved into a method to spread rumors, engage in cyber-bullying and make threats to others,” according to Soulard. He added, however, that the operators of the website “were fully cooperative with law enforcement during this investigation.”
— City News Service
