Police to patrol Heritage campus in wake of shooting threat

By Doug Spoon, Editor

The Menifee Police Department will have a presence on the Heritage High School campus the rest of this week after a day marked by student fights and social media threats of a shooting, a Menifee PD official said today.

Captain Dave Gutierrez said police officers were already on campus when a “vague threat” of violence on social media, discovered about 2:15 p.m., said there would be a shooting on campus within minutes. A second social media post threatening violence on campus Wednesday appeared to be copied from another source and did not mention Heritage High specifically.

“From what we can determine, we don’t believe the threat has credibility,” said Gutierrez. “Typical of these kinds of posts, it appeared to be a picture of a picture, indicating it could’ve been taken from somewhere else. You can see someone crossed out part of the wording, which means this could’ve come from anywhere. We are still trying to identify the sender.”

Police were originally responding during a lockdown of the school initiated after several fights broke out during the first lunch period. An email from principal Mark Harrell told parents that the lockdown was lifted after order was restored, but that a Shelter in Place order was given during the second lunch period as a precaution. Some parents have indicated on the Menifee 24/7 Facebook page that an additional fight took place during the later lunch period, but those reports have not been confirmed.

The planned police presence on campus the rest of the week could revive discussion about placing police personnel in the role of school resource officers on local school campuses. Gutierrez said Menifee PD has had discussions with the Perris Union High School District and Menifee Union School District on this subject.

So far, however, the only decision made has been by the City of Menifee to designate one Menifee PD officer as a school resource officer. Until – and if – either the City or school districts or both devote additional funding to SROs, that one position would be shared among several schools.

“We hope to build that program,” Gutierrez said. “Right now, there is no funding at either district for this. The City remains committed to it and has had one position approved. We absolutely believe there is value in this.

"An SRO on campus has the ability to build relationships with the students. We would also like to have school assemblies where we could address the issue and discuss the ramifications if you’re a creator of one of these posts.”

At this time, Menifee PD has not met with Romoland School District about the SRO issue. Gutierrez said it would probably be sometime in the first quarter of 2022 before the City’s one approved SRO would be deployed.

Gutierrez said it is possible that when the City makes its annual mid-year budget adjustments, additional funding could be devoted to additional RSOs. Meanwhile, discussions with school officials about school district funding are expected to continue.