Conejo District to Launch Hotline to Derail Campus Threats

In the wake of warnings about violence against students on campuses across Ventura County, Conejo Valley school officials will soon launch a hotline to derail those intent on making threats.

A letter to be sent out today to nearly 12,000 households within the Conejo Valley Unified School District notifies parents and their children of the hotline while upholding the “practice of zero tolerance for weapons and drugs.”

“One of the things that we have to do is encourage students to internalize the [idea] that it is . . . an act of courage to protect themselves and their peers,” Supt. Jerry Gross said Tuesday. “Any time they hear someone in jest or seriously consider violence against another person, they have to seek out authority.”

The letter comes one week after a Thousand Oaks middle school student was arrested for allegedly threatening classmates and compiling an online list of students he would rape or murder.

Sheriff deputies arrested the 13-year-old student March 13 on suspicion of using an electronic device to make annoying or threatening communications after he threatened a female classmate and several other students at the school via computer.

Police and sheriff’s deputies have arrested six people this month in connection with a series of threats made against students at several high schools and middle schools in Ventura County.

The latest arrest came Tuesday when Oxnard police took a 15-year-old girl into custody for allegedly threatening in an e-mail message to blow up Oxnard High School.

Gross said the intent of the letter is to encourage students and parents to use the hotline if they sense that someone they know of is on the verge of committing a violent act against students or a campus.

The hotline should reassure anxious parents and students that administrators are not ignoring the threat of violent incidents, Gross said.

“There is a nervousness even though you live in the first or second safest city in America,” Gross said. “I can’t be too pushy in my letter because there are too many great parents out there that are doing a fabulous job.”

Gross said that although the hotline will be up and running by early next week, many of the specifics must still be worked out.

He said it’s not certain whether callers will talk to a person or leave a message.

Sheriff’s officials said they like the hotline idea, but insist that it shouldn’t be the first call a person makes during a school emergency.

“It sounds like a wonderful way for them to get information that they can analyze, but any time somebody perceives a threat that is immediate, they should call 911 first,” said Cmdr. Keith Parks, who oversees the East Valley sheriff’s station.

“We have always had kids that made threats, but in light of what’s gone on over the past decade with threats being carried out with grim results, we now take all threats seriously.”

The phone number is 497-9591.