After school is cancelled due to anonymous threats, students return to campus with heightened security precautions

By Gassia Ashikian
News editor
Jamie Kelleher
Online News Editor

The Manhattan Beach Police Department is continuing its investigation into the anonymous threats made toward Mira Costa on the social media app Yik Yak, while the Manhattan Beach Unified School District is working with the state to resolve the two days of missed school on Nov. 17 and 18.

According to MBPD Detective Mike Rosemberger, the teen responsible for posting the first Yik Yak threat stating, “If you go to Costa, watch out at school today” turned herself into MBPD. She is now going to juvenile court where she will face either probation or community service for harassment.

MBUSD has not connected any of the other threats to possible perpetrators. According to Rosenberger, MBUSD has not located the Yik Yak posters partly due to the lengthy process of identifying Internet Protocol addresses and also because the IP addresses can be untraceable.

“During my investigation, I did not come across anything that would make me believe that anybody was actually being threatened,” Rosemberger said.

Although the district is taking no legal action against Yik Yak, it has “geo-fenced” the app from all MBUSD locations, making it impossible for students to access it on campus.
“There’s little reason for students to use the app at school,” Superintendant Dr. Michael Matthews said.

The Manhattan Beach Unified School District is currently applying to the state of California for a waiver to excuse the two days of cancelled school. California schools can have as few as 175 days each year, but school days may only be excused from the regular 180-day schedule because of extraordinary circumstances, according to Matthews.

If the waiver is not approved by the state, Costa will either have to make up the missed days or lose two days of state funding. According to Matthews, the waiver would be issued in anywhere from a few weeks to a few months.

“In Advanced Placement classes, the material has to be taught before the test occurs, so it will be more work in a shorter amount of time if we do not make up these days,” Matthews said. “In other classes, we will miss out on some academic learning activities, but the stakes aren’t as high.”

Costa administration has implemented new safety procedures, including backpack searches and mandatory hall passes for all students. Only four entrances will be open for students and staff to enter and exit school.

“As time wears on, we will either have to tighten back down on safety procedures or let them ease out,” Dale said. “You can see the enforcement quickly deteriorates, so you have to continually reinforce regulations like the hall passes.”

According to Dale, there is no formalized plan of how security practices will change throughout the coming months. The Crisis Response Team, comprised of various faculty, security, and MBPD employees, will meet regularly to discuss the impact of certain measures and decide whether to eliminate them, strengthen them or leave them as is. In addition to the measures, Dale is in the process of requesting two additional security officers for the west side of campus.

“I think the lesson for us is to get every bit of information out there to students and parents about what’s being said and to have as much security as possible,” Matthews said. “Safety is the most important issue out there.”