Sonoma County, Lake County school threats deemed hoax

Public schools throughout the North Coast received an email threat of violence in recent days, but the different timing of the threat prompted very different reactions.

In Sonoma County, 40 superintendents received the threat around 11:30 p.m. Sunday, giving them enough time to confer with law enforcement and federal officials, conclude it was a hoax and allow classes to go forward Monday.

But in Lakeport, the same message - a gruesome threat referring to bombs, a gun and throats being slit - wasn’t received until classes were already underway, triggering a massive emergency response and lockdown of the district’s 1,500-student population.

“It frightened me because it was sent 45 minutes before I saw it,” said Superintendent April Leiferman, who didn’t open the email until 11:30 a.m. Monday after turning off her phone while at a city council meeting.

She immediately called the Lakeport police chief when she finally saw the email.

Lake County officials were completely unaware of the Sunday evening threats to other districts the night before, so they initially had no reason to believe the threat was a hoax and acted as though it wasn’t.

A total of 27 law enforcement officers, six firefighters, and eight public works employees raced to the school and began a full sweep, Leiferman said.

“They cased the whole campus. They went through every classroom,” she said, noting that there are 1,500 students on the elementary, middle and high school campuses.

At some point during the investigation, officials learned it was possibly a hoax, Leiferman said. Police announced at 1:28 p.m. the lockdown was lifted, two hours after they were called out to the school.

The email Sonoma County superintendents were sent - some had it trapped in their spam filters - was “very similar in content and tone” to the one received by Lakeport, said Jamie Hansen, spokeswoman for the Sonoma County Office of Education.

But they had the time to consult with law enforcement and have a more measured response.

Diann Kitamura, superintendent of Santa Rosa City Schools, said in an email Monday morning to parents that the anonymous group sending the emails “has been creating panic” in the United Kingdom with similar threats, a fact confirmed by Santa Rosa police. Their investigation revealed the group may have accidentally sent the email too soon, failing to create the “mass school evacuations” it sought.

“After an investigation, multiple law enforcement agencies in the county deemed the threat to be a hoax, thus leading us to decide to keep our schools open today,” said Kitamura, who had consulted with other superintendents.

The Sonoma County Office of Education said it was forwarding the matter to the Northern California Computer Crimes Task Force, a unit of investigators trained to combat technology crime and identity theft.