Petaluma students skip school after threats posted on Internet

Students skipped school by the hundreds Wednesday after threats of a Virginia Tech-style massacre were posted on MySpace pages, school officials said.

Someone hacked into student MySpace Web pages Tuesday and posted messages stating that they would show up at Petaluma High School “strapped” with the intent of “beating the high score of 33.”

Thirty-three references the number of victims, including the shooter, slain at Virginia Tech last month.

Arla Norton, a school secretary, said the phones rang off the hook with calls from concerned parents.

“People don’t want to send their kids to school,” she said.

School officials believed the threat was a hoax, but more police were on campus Wednesday as a precaution.

Principal Michael Simpson played down the threats as the “21st century equivalent of pulling a fire alarm.”

But school administrators and police were taking the investigation into the threats seriously and working with Internet providers to pinpoint the source.

“We’ll do everything we can, working with police, to catch this person and hold them accountable for their actions,” said Dave Rose, coordinator of student services for Petaluma schools.