Police unsure when Santa Cruz High School will reopen after threat

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. -- S Police and school officials do not yet know when Santa Cruz High School will reopen after someone sent an email to the school's principal Tuesday night threatening a mass shooting, prompting the closure of the campus Wednesday, authorities said.

"A shooting is what the threat was," Santa Cruz police Deputy Chief Steve Clark said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon. "It was intended to be a message of mass casualties."

The school was closed today and Clark could not yet say whether the campus would be reopened Thursday as the investigation continues into leads about the threatening email.

"This is going to be an hour-by-hour decision for us," he said.

School principal Karen Edmonds checked her mail Tuesday and read the message, which had been sent to her at 8:23 p.m. that night. She immediately called Clark at his home, the deputy chief said.

The email prompted a discussion that led to police and officials from the school district, Santa Cruz City Schools, to order the high school closed today out of caution, superintendent Kris Munro said at the news conference, held at the school district's office in Soquel.

"We were fortunate that Principal Edmonds was on her email at 8:23 at night," Munro said.

The email did not specifically mention Edmonds or anyone else as targets for the attack and the district contacted the principals of its other schools and none of them had received any threats, Munro said.

The district quickly informed students, parents and staff by text, email and automated calls that the school campus at 415 Walnut Ave. in Santa Cruz was closed for the day, Munro said.

Staffers were stationed at the school to notify students who arrived but did not know about the closure and police officers went to some other local schools to reassure employees and students, Munro said.

District officials will hold a meeting for parents at 7 p.m. today at the Kaiser Permanente Arena at 140 Front St. to answer questions about the incident, according to Munro.

Clark said that his detectives received new leads today from citizens and that he contacted the FBI, which has offered to assist with the Police Department's forensic examination of the encrypted software used in the email.

The department has a detective on staff who is an expert in investigating software and is working to "peel back the layers of encryption" from the email, he said.

The FBI "understands the seriousness" of the situation, Clark said.

The deputy chief declined to release the specific wording in the email, but did say that it "wasn't some long, drawn-out manifesto" but was "concise" and "focused."

Any suspect caught on suspicion of sending the message could face "a very serious felony charge" based on state and federal statutes, Clark said.