The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office is investigating nine social media threats aimed at local schools but is urging the community to stop sharing these posts online.
Sheriff’s Office Spokesperson Raquel Zick said while people may think they're helping by spreading the warnings, it often does more harm than good.
“We're asking the members of the public, our students, to report it instead of repost,” Zick said. “We want to emphasize that sharing this information on social media shares in fear, and it doesn't help the situation.”
Zick added that reposting can interfere with police investigations.
“Every time that you share a post, you make one more footprint on that thread that we have to track down to ensure that it was false, so in sharing it, you do kind of contribute to or become one of the the posters that we have to take a look into,” Zick said.
The sheriff’s office recommends taking a screenshot of the threat and reporting it directly to law enforcement.
Nipomo High School in San Luis Obispo County was also hit by an online threat Thursday, forcing the campus to go on lockdown.
