Palo Alto High School faced a tense and unsettling week after receiving multiple anonymous threats of violence, resulting in a lockdown and heightened security measures, according to Palo Alto Unified School District administration.
Last Tuesday, PAUSD received a threatening email from an unidentified person at approximately 4:00 a.m. which resulted in the police later calling for a full lockdown. The following day, another anonymous threat targeted the school, leading to onsite law enforcement investigations, including police dogs and overnight security patrols on campus.
For many students, the lockdown was a harrowing experience. Unlike upperclassmen, who experienced a lockdown and bomb threat in 2022, freshmen such as EJ Kaleba had never experienced a safety threat before.
“We all looked at each other, and we had a moment of realization,” Kaleba said. “And it kind of set in that if this was real, then it could change our lives.”
Another student, sophomore Olivia Zappas, was in an outdoor physical education class and the only option was to run to shelter.
“My teacher told me not to text anyone which made me even more worried because I felt every minute my life was more in danger,” Zappas said.
In some cases, the chaos also led teachers to make difficult decisions. Journalism adviser Rodney Satterthwaite had a preparation period during the lockdown but decided to assist students who lacked a safe space to shelter.
“It’s scary being a student that has nowhere to go and has to basically fend for themselves,” Satterthwaite said. “Even though we aren’t supposed to let kids we don’t know into our classrooms, I think I made the right decision because who knows what would happen if this threat was real.”
Satterthwaite also said he was frustrated with the emotional toll the hoax threats caused to the school community.
“It’s really annoying to not only disrupt school, but also stress people out and make people panic, and also [to] not know if it’s real or not,” Satterthwaite said. “So I’m super annoyed by the whole thing, but I also feel like it’s just kind of a sign of our life in today’s world which is very disappointing to say the least.”
Other teachers, such as English teacher Marc Tolentino, had to manage a classroom full of anxious students during the lockdown.
“It’s terrorism,” Tolentino said. “There’s a lot of fear, especially in this day and age, where it is becoming a reality that we do need to have these lockdowns, and we do need to worry about bomb threats or possible shooters. And all we want to do is learn.”
