Santa Cruz High School reopens after mass shooting threat

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. -- Santa Cruz High School reopened for classes Thursday morning after school administrators, police and parents met Wednesday night and decided it was safe following an email that threatened a mass shooting and prompted the closure of the campus, a police official said.

Santa Cruz City Schools, the district governing the high school, held a community meeting with police, parents and others at the Kaiser Permanente Arena in Santa Cruz and discussed a plan for the school to resume operations Thursday, Santa Cruz police Deputy Chief Steve Clark said.

Police have obtained new information and leads that have left detectives confident the case could be solved soon and the sender of the email located, Clark said.

"We felt the threat was not as severe" as initially believed on Wednesday, Clark said.

Officers are following one good lead Thursday in particular after a difficult investigation into the encryption used by the sender to block detection of the source of the email, Clark said.

"We made some really good progress last night," he said.

Police officers were assigned to be present at the school Thursday, Clark said.

At 8:45 p.m. Tuesday, Santa Cruz High School's principal received the email, containing threats that specified the time, place and method of an attack and "indicated an intention to create a mass casualty situation with students and staff at the campus," Clark said.

The principal immediately called Clark at home and police and district officials agreed to close the school campus on Wednesday out caution while police conducted an investigation.

During a news conference held later on Wednesday, Clark confirmed that the sender of the email threatened a shooting at the school, located at 415 Walnut Ave. in Santa Cruz.

District officials contacted the principals of its other schools and none of them reported receiving any threats, according to district superintendent Kris Munro.