Dear CUSD Community:

As many of you already know from our earlier messages to families and staff today, we evacuated buildings at Half Moon Bay High School this morning after hearing from San Mateo County Sheriffs how they received a call about rumors of a bomb threat. We are grateful to have seen how quickly HMBHS administrators acted today, and we sent messages to the CUSD community once we could coordinate with our law enforcement partners.

I want to commend administrators, teachers, support staff, and students at Half Moon Bay High School for their cooperation and understanding during this time. Staff had previously investigated a rumor of a bomb threat in recent weeks with the assistance of a School Resource Officer, but they determined the rumor was not credible. But because of a call received today by a community member, HMBHS administrators and our law enforcement partners acted out of an abundance of caution to rule out the risk of a dangerous situation. HMBHS students and staff evacuated to areas where they conduct their regular safety drills, and San Mateo County “Big Five” safety protocols were followed with active communication and collaboration between CUSD staff and Sheriffs.

Please know CUSD takes student, staff, and community safety very seriously, and that is why staff and students participate in regular and ongoing Big Five safety protocol exercises and drills at all campuses during the year. While ultimately Sheriffs were able to sweep every building and determine that there was no real credible threat, we are very grateful for their support and to HMBHS leaders for acting out of an abundance of caution today.

Meanwhile, we want to keep encouraging all students, staff, and community members to report any concerns for school and community safety when they arise. We rely upon information from students, families, and community to help us work toward our ongoing goal of ensuring student and staff safety. I want to especially thank partners in law enforcement for their excellent work today to respond quickly and efficiently to investigate this concern.

As we approach the end of the 2022-2023 school year, please know we appreciate the work of students, staff, and community partners to help keep us all safe at school. We will make counselors and other support staff available to anyone who needs it in days ahead in the aftermath of this incident, and we thank our partners in law enforcement, our high school administrators, and our district support staff for their work together today to respond in a responsible and cooperative manner.

Sincerely,

Sean McPhetridge, Ed.D.
Superintendent
Cabrillo Unified School District

Community Letter: English / Spanish

Published: May 23, 2023