Shooting threat made by student at Battles Elementary determined not to be credible

An alleged threat about a possible school shooting caused great concern for many parents at a Santa Maria school on Tuesday.

The threat was determined not to be credible and the school functioned as normal throughout the day.

The situation began with a Facebook post on Monday night by Tanicesha Gonzalez, who has four children that attend George Washington Battles Elementary School.

In the post, Gonzalez warned others that a child had threatened to bring a gun onto campus and shoot a group of kids, including her twins.

Gonzalez said she learned of the threat while picking up her kids Monday school.

“(Her son) said, I don’t want to go to school together mom. I said why? Even before he could answer, I saw tears stream down his face,” Gonzalez said.

When she questioned her son, her daughter offered more information about a incident that happened on campus just before class started.

” Today at school, a little boy told us that he’s going to bring a gun tomorrow and kill us,” Gonzalez said her daughter told her.

Gonzalez said she quickly called the Santa Maria Police Department and made a full report at home.

She later decided to warn other parents through her social media post.

“I was kind of hesitant about making the post on the community Facebook page, but my overall feeling was, as a mother, if another child came home and another parent genuinely seen the fear that I have seen in my baby’s eyes, then I would want them to speak up and say something,” said Gonzalez.

She added that she began calling the school early Tuesday morning with the hope of reaching the principal to further discuss the threat.

Instead of reaching the principal, Gonzalez said she was only able to speak with an unknown person who answered the phone at the front desk.

“Basically in a nutshell I was told, I had no business putting it on (Facebook) Central Coast Exchange and that my post was the reason for a lot of children missing school today and it’s causing an uproar in the community and I should take my kids back to school,” said Gonzalez.

During a noontime interview with KCOY 12 Central Coast News, Gonzalez said she still had not heard from either Battles Elementary principal Victor Velazquez or Santa Maria-Bonita School District Superintendent Luke Ontiveros.

“I feel like they need their time for investigation, I’m very understanding of that, but I also feel like they should have reached out and called me. Hey Ms. Gonzalez, how are your kids doing? Can we send someone to the house to talk to them? They haven’t even heard my kids side of the story,” said Gonzalez.

Later in the afternoon, Ontiveros told KCOY that both he and Mr. Velazquez had spoken to Gonzalez earlier in the afternoon, sometime soon after her interview.

“The principal spoke to the mother who made the report,” Ontiveros. “They’re meeting tomorrow to put into place some protocols for the child to know that in the advent of if something occurs in the future to feel comfortable conveying that with an adult at the school site.”

Ontiveros stressed the school district addressed the matter immediately after it was brought to their attention.

He added it was actually first investigated on Monday and found not to be credible.

“There was an incident during that day that was investigated, a situation between students was investigated, but no information was conveyed about anything of a threatening nature,” said Ontiveros.

Ontiveros also said the district takes each threat seriously and safety of the students is first and foremost.

He mentioned assistant principals and each campus just met with local law enforcement last week to discuss ways to open up better lines of communication with the public.

As for the social media post made by Gonzalez, Ontiveros said he understood her desire to help keep her children and others safe from harm.

“There’s never an over-reaction to something, there’s generally an under reaction when we find out that we could have done something, so I would never second guess a parent of doing what’s in the best interest of their child because it’s their child,” Ontiveros said.