On Wednesday, Santa Clarita Sheriff’s COBRA detectives, assisted by deputies, detained several local high school students after learning about social media threats regarding committing acts of school violence. There is no current threat to students, staff or schools in Santa Clarita.

A William S. Hart Union School District staff member discovered the threats and alerted the authorities who quickly investigated and detained six juveniles. The Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s deputies take any and all threats of violence seriously. The suspects were detained on felony criminal threats charges and transported to the Sylmar Juvenile Hall where they currently remain housed.

“Our detectives and school resource officers are spending a lot of manpower researching, identifying and interviewing the subjects, because how do we know that we are not dealing with the next active shooter?” said Sergeant Brian Shreves, who oversees the station’s COBRA unit which primarily deals with investigating juvenile-related crimes. “We don’t know, so when kids make thoughtless comments to one another either verbally or through text messages, we take it very seriously.”

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department wants to remind the community that all threats will be investigated aggressively with criminal consequences.

“We encourage all parents – please talk with your children about social media and make sure they know any kind of threat they put out there is not a joke,” added Shreves. “Oftentimes in these situations we hear from the suspect that the alleged threat was just a joke. There is nothing funny about threatening violence, and the consequences they face, including jail time, restitution and a criminal record – are all very serious.”