‘Outraged.’ Clovis school has 3rd lockdown in less than week after prank threats

For the third time in less than a week, Clovis West High School has received a threat over the phone that Fresno police Wednesday said was unfounded.

A call came in about 11:30 a.m. with a similar message as a call made Monday and another on Friday, officer Felipe Uribe told The Bee.

Officers rushed to the school and were carrying out the typical protocol as a precaution, but police had no reason to believe the latest call was anything other than a prank, Uribe said.

There was no shooting and the threat was not credible, he said.

Uribe said police suspect the caller was using a smartphone app that generates a fake phone number that is untraceable.

“You can’t trace it,” he said. “You can’t call back.”

Clovis West Principal Eric Swain said in an email to students, teachers and parents at about 12:30 p.m. that the threats are an attempt to scare the community, and officials are resolved to find the culprit.

“We are all outraged. ... I want you to know that there is a community-wide team of law enforcement and educators ... committed to finding out who this person is so they can face consequences for what they are doing,” he said in an email.

Clovis Unified School District assured parents that officials are trying to determine the source of the calls with the help of police, according to an email to parents from Kelly Avants, the spokesperson for the district.

Nearby Fort Washington Elementary was also locked down all three times.

“This is an important message from Clovis West High School/Fort Washington Elementary School to update our families on steps we are taking today to work with law enforcement to identify the source of three phone calls to local law enforcement in the past four days, threatening the safety of our students and staff,” the email said.

The email said the lockdown was brief. The campuses were back to normal operations by 12:17 p.m., officials said.

Class disruptions from fake calls

District officials said Tuesday that attendance was down roughly 12% on both campuses and 1% to 2% for the district as a whole. They pointed to the unfounded threats as a possible reason for the dip.

About 79% of students showed up for classes at Clovis West, a campus of just over 2,000 students as of 2021-22 enrollment data, and 83.3% were present at nearby Fort Washington, a school of just under 600, compared with 93.2% attendance at Clovis Unified schools districtwide.