Hoax Shooting Call Prompts Lockdown at Saugus High School

Saugus, Santa Clarita, CA: Saugus High School plunged into a lockdown after a 911 caller reported four students shot inside of a campus restroom. Law enforcement did not find any evidence of a shooting.

Austin Dave / KNN

The situation unfolded at about 1:20 p.m. Friday, Mar. 24, on the 21900 block of Centurion Way in the Saugus community of the city of Santa Clarita.

Law enforcement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Santa Clarita Station, California Highway Patrol, Los Angeles Police Department and firefighters responded to the scene, both on the ground and from the air.

The school was the scene of a deadly shooting on November 14, 2019 when a student opened fire on five other students, killing two before taking his own life.

Key News Network spoke to students at the school Friday that said they were traumatized.

Saugus High School students Gabriel Vargas, Austin Sinisi, and Sean Brown spoke about what happened and their feelings about the incident.

Gabriel felt the principal did a really good job of keeping everyone caught up on everything. “She kept checking in on everybody,” he said. “Then the officers came in to check on everyone.”

Gabriel said it was pretty scary: a lot of classmates were crying, his teacher was scared and it was very chaotic. He contacted his parents from his cell phone immediately and kept them informed as to what was happening.

Austin stated he was feeling safe knowing it was a prank even though it “sucked” that it happened.

“For the most part … I feel safe, some other people might not, and they were offered help in the serenity space and the wellness center at Saugus,”said Austin.

Sean’s mother contacted him. She had wanted Sean to check on his sister who is a freshman at the school. He said she was really worried.

Sean stated he was fine, but felt bad for the current seniors who had to go through what happened in 2019 because they must have been more scared than anybody else on campus.

“I don’t know what would go though somebody’s mind to try and pull something like that … it’s just traumatizing for everybody,”said Sean.

Capt. Justin Diez, with the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, said they later determined that other calls had gone out to other schools throughout the county for the same thing. According to Diez, it appeared to be a swatting call.

Diez wanted families to know students are safe at the high school and that there are multiple resources available and ready to respond quickly if and when there is an incident.

Austin Dave, Video Journalist / KNN

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