Freedom students say they feel safe on campus; social media … – thepress.net

For Freedom High School juniors Ysabel Vongon and Victoria DeLeon, Tuesday at Freedom was just about as normal as any other day.

A little over 24 hours earlier, their school was in a panic after a false shooting threat that went viral from a Facebook post by a Freedom parent resulted in more than 1,000 of their classmates leaving campus and getting picked up by parents who were even more concerned.

It felt like an ordinary day, just like any day from last week, DeLeon said.

(Tuesday) was pretty ordinary, Vongon added. Just still a little bit of tension though. Still people with rumors going around.

Vongon added that the rumors were other students making assumptions about who made the statements on Monday.

According to Freedom principal Steve Amaro, attendance at Freedom on Tuesday was at 95 percent, slightly above the 93 percent average the school normally has.

Were right at average, Amaro told The Press. The kids were back, they were ready to go, and they were engaged. I think theres still some concern within the community, but they also realize theyre on a safe campus.

Vongon and DeLeon stayed on campus through the day while the majority of the student body left out of fear for their own safety. DeLeon said that she took caution with the rumors and panicked a bit, but felt safe in the end.

When I first heard about it, my friend said that he heard someone tell him that there were shooting threats, DeLeon said. I got scared. I wanted to leave, then I panicked a little bit because I felt like it might happen. But the school was aware in the end and there were cops, so I felt safe. And I felt okay after that.

Vongon added that stuff like this always kind of happens.

It's concerning, she said. You don't know if it's real or fake because we're used to having the shooting threats. I don't know what would happen if there was actually a shooting threat. The crazy part about it is that somebody made one statement and that just spread around and it became this whole thing. Kind of pointless, because it seemed like someone was really bored, because, who just does that?

Amaro hosted a community meeting along with Oakley police Chief Paul Beard in the schools performing arts center Monday evening to address the rumors from the Facebook post and social media to a nearly packed auditorium of Freedom parents. The nearly 90-minute meeting started with school safety concerns to the students and even parents' use and supervision of social media.

One Freedom parent at the meeting wasnt shy about her frustrations with the parent that sparked the rumor of the shooting threat on campus.

Other parents should check their facts before they open their mouths," said Mrs. Blunt on Monday evening, who asked to be named by last name only. I mean, I teach my kid don't repeat it unless they know for sure it's true, right? And if they don't know it's true, but it's a threat, to take it to an admin. Why can't a parent do that?

She added that every parent should be watching their kids social media if they have it, and that her daughter does not have any social media due to events like Monday.

Its amazing, the power of social media, Amaro said. I think a lot of our teachers today chose to go ahead and address the situation about what happened(Monday)and talked with (the students). I walked into a class and they said they just finished a conversation they had about the incidents, safety, social media, and the like. So I feel that theyre more aware of what can happen when misinformation goes to print.

Both Vongon and DeLeon added that social media hasnt been reliable and that threats, even false ones like Mondays, are sort of the norm.

This generation, social media has like never really been the most reliable source, Vongon said. (Its) kind of normal (to have) threats going around. It's just kind of ordinary.

I feel like social media really does influence the whole thing because sometimes people can just say fake things, and then other people would think of it as real, DeLeon added. Then just rumors and then it's like playing telephone with social media. Sometimes it's always fake. Sometimes it's always real.

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