We frequently see Cal High on the news, and often it’s for all the wrong reasons.  

Recently, we had multiple school shooting threats, the most recent involving detailed graffiti of a shooting on May 9. 

This is not a problem with just one student, as administrators found the threats came from different vandals. Students use these threats as pranks. But this issue is no laughing matter and is not to be taken lightly. 

These threats make a joke of all of the communities damaged by real school shootings.  

Every false shooting threat undermines the terror of any students who are forced to hide and wonder if it all ends for them that day.  

It undermines the guilt felt by faculty and police officers who prioritize the safety of all students.  It undermines the grief that parents feel for their child suddenly never coming home from school.

Unfortunately, most of us  have become so desensitized to these threats that we don’t even take them seriously anymore. This is dangerous if there is ever an actual threat at school and students are unprepared.

The threated shooting at Cal on May 9 came a day after an actual school shooting at a Colorado high school and a week after one at University of North Carolina. Students died in both shootings.

When news spread of the threat at our school, students at the other California High in Los Angeles were terrified that their school was the target.  

Although about 80 percent of our students stayed home on May 9, very few of them believed anything was going to happen. Students used this as an opportunity to relax at home and hang out with their friends, or maybe prepare for an AP test.

They believed that there was no way Cal High was going to be attacked because we have taken our safety for granted.  

Each threat makes us less and less likely to believe a threat when it is actually credible.

In today’s climate, instances such as these are not jokes.  Students who make these threats are morally liable for this desensitization and making a joke out of the lives lost from school shootings.