On Friday, Sept. 13, at 8 a.m., the Tamalpais Union High School District (TUHSD) received a bomb threat. Students who were at school early for various reasons were sent home by administrators immediately after receiving the threat. While investigating the bomb threat, authorities found a separate, unrelated shooting threat on social media. The suspect, a 15-year-old girl from San Anselmo, was arrested that afternoon, but no information has been released about the suspect of the bomb threat. Nonetheless, the potential danger created a stressful and frightening situation for many students across Redwood High School.
Sophomore Talia Landers had just moved back to Marin County after spending the previous school year in Bogotá, Colombia, and said the threat dramatically changed her view of American schools.
“I was terrified because there have been so many shootings and bomb [threats in America]. I was just frightened and shocked that this happened [at Redwood],” Landers said. “I talked with my friends and joked about it. Even though it wasn’t a joke it helped to calm me because [the threat] was really stressful and [emotionally] hard.”
Unlike Landers, junior Ben Harp coped with his emotions by enjoying his time off.
“I really enjoyed the day off. My friends and I went fishing in the [San Francisco] Bay. We knew it was a serious day, but we took advantage of [the day off] and had fun,” Harp said.
Regarding the districts’ response, Harp believes they did a sufficient job in investigating and responding to the issue.
“The school responded well. There were many police officers [at Redwood] investigating and [administrators] evacuated [students and teachers] in a good process,” Harp said.
However, some scholars, like senior Kaito Naka, called for increased security and restrictions on campus.
“I feel like our [campus] is pretty open, and anyone could get in and out. We have [the Central Marin] police station next to [Redwood], but I feel we should have one police officer roaming around, making sure everyone’s doing their job,” Naka said.
While Naka advocated for increased security measures, Harp argued that the school’s existing security is sufficient.
“We don’t need police on campus, we have [campus assistant] Jay [Demaestri] and [campus supervisor] Isaiah [Howard] who walk around so [having police] isn’t necessary,” Harp said.
The Sept. 13 threat left lasting impacts on the school year, removing a scheduled school day, meaning TUHSD is required to add an additional day at the end of the year. The additional day of school will be on Friday, June 13, in order to fulfill California Department of Education codes 46207 and 46208, which require 180 school days and 64,800 minutes.
“The fact [administrators] added an extra day really pissed me off. I don’t think we should have that [extra day] just because [students] missed one day of school [due to the threat],” Landers said.
Similar to Landers, sophomore Thanos Givas expressed his distaste for the extra school day.
“Lots of people just won’t show up to [the extra day of school]. It’s unnecessary and annoying,” Givas said.
In addition to causing stress and disturbance, the Sept. 13 bomb threat was troublesome for students’ learning and welfare because it disrupted their everyday routines.
“[The threat] disturbed [students] because I had a test on Friday, so I missed that and it moved to Monday,” stated Naka.
Givas also had the same issue for a history test.
“I studied for a couple of hours for my AP World test. [The threat] messed that up, and I had to re-study over the weekend,” Givas said.
Overall, the threat had a significant impact on students’ mental health and academic routines. The incident sparked discussions about security measures, school safety and the effectiveness of the school’s response. Students needing emotional support are always welcome to visit the school’s wellness center or talk with their counselor. To report or prevent school incidents, call or text the confidential tip line at 415-945-3693, which is provided near the bottom of the home page on the Redwood website.
