NMCHS students returning to class after threatening emails

North Monterey County High School students will be back in class on Tuesday, after threatening emails disrupted classes two days in a row last week.

On Monday, teachers were on campus, learning some life lessons themselves.
They met with members of the Monterey County Crisis Team to learn how to handle the questions they may face from students.

As Crisis Supervisor Devon Corpus explained, some of those questions include how to talk to students who are anxious or a lot more fearful. Another asked how to separate normal teenage drama versus something that might be a red flag. But the biggest lesson the teachers are learning is separating fact from fiction.

“When you have incident like this,” Corpus explained, “Rumors can spin and go out of control and that doesn’t help. What are the facts, what are the things we know? What can we disseminate to students? To parents? That really helps manage the situation better. We don’t want people stirring the pot, we don’t want people to blow things out of proportion. We want them to take it seriously and be vigilant, not based on fear and unknowns. It’s balancing all of that.”

The North Monterey County School district doesn’t want families to be in the dark or even afraid of what might be lurking behind the keyboard. They’re hoping something like this will enlighten families to have more conversations with their kids.

“I think the most important thing is we keep talking to each other and talking to our kids and talking with the principal and teachers about any concerns,” Kari Yeater, superintendent of NMCUD said.

The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office says the case has been transferred to the investigations division.

“We have no further evidence to show there actually an attack or a threat to the school,” Commander John Thornburg said, “But we are diligently working to find the person who sent the email to the school.”

In the meantime, when kids return to class, things will be the same.

“We are trying to keep it pretty much the same,” Yeater said. “When you think about the training we received in terms of what we do when we respond, to have a regular routine and do the things you normally do every day is important, so we are going to keep that.”