Hundreds of parents descend on Taft High School in Woodland Hills after social media threat

Hundreds of Taft High School parents lined up outside the campus early on Tuesday, March 12 to pick up their children after a school shooting threat on social media led to some students jumping fences to leave.

The Los Angeles Police Department got a call about the threat at around 9 a.m. on Tuesday, said Officer David Cuellar. He said the report was “basically about a social media post making threats.”

Cuellar did not know who called police or discovered the threat. But by midmorning, students were seen scaling fences at the school to get off campus.

At about 1 p.m., LAUSD provided a statement saying there was no evidence the threat was credible, but police are investigating and “school authorities will be providing additional patrols in and around our school campus.”

Several students told KTLA a post on Instagram Tuesday morning threatened a shooting at the school.

Student Evan Mesri told KTLA that at some point midmorning, students started to check their phones and saw the threat, leading many students to go to the school’s front office to request to leave the school.

“Most of the teachers were guarding everywhere, because they said it’s safer to be at school,” Mesri said. “But so many did try to hop the fence and leave.”

This is a developing story. More information will be added as it becomes available.