Boy’s Menacing Note Being Investigated

A teacher intercepted a student note threatening at least one classmate at Aliso Viejo Middle School, authorities said Friday.

Orange County sheriff’s investigators were called to the school Thursday morning after the teacher read the note, passed between two students in a first-period class, school officials said.

A search of the students’ homes and investigations at the school revealed no evidence that the students posed an actual danger, Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo said.

“There’s a fine line sometimes between a criminal act and a stupid childish prank,” he said. But “we will not tolerate anything that even looks remotely threatening or harassing. . . . If we didn’t have the incidents in Fullerton, Garden Grove and Columbine, we might not be having this conversation.”

School officials and police nationwide have been more vigilant about student threats since April, when two teens at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., killed 12 students and a teacher, then shot themselves to death.

In Fullerton, a 14-year-old boy was arrested Tuesday and later charged with a felony after allegedly plotting to shoot his classmates at Ladera Vista Junior High School. No weapons were found in the boy’s home, Fullerton police said.

At Garden Grove High School, a student was pistol-whipped Tuesday night before the school’s annual Christmas concert, police said. Two students were taken into custody for questioning.

The Aliso Viejo students involved in Thursday’s incident were released to their parents and will not be allowed to return to school until the sheriff’s investigation is completed, Principal Peggy Swanson said. Disciplinary action will depend on the results of that investigation, she said.

Swanson said teachers were asked to discuss the incident with their classes late Friday. The school sent letters home with students informing parents that the situation was under control.

Lisa Millerd, PTSA president at the school and the parent of a student there, said, “I feel that my child is a safe as they’re going to be anywhere. I’m confident that they’re taking care of it, so I’ll send my son to school.”