Moorpark High School locked down after threatening note found

Students at Moorpark High School were dismissed early Thursday after a threatening note prompted a school lockdown and at least two campus searches by authorities.

School officials notified the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department about 8:20 a.m. after the note, written by a student, was found on campus, said sheriff’s Capt. Don Aguilar.

Details of the note’s contents were not known, but Aguilar said it included some type of “threat to harm.� The person who found the note notified school officials “immediately,� Aguilar said, and deputies were on scene within minutes as the campus was locked down.

Roughly 70 sheriff’s deputies, a bomb squad and K-9 unit searched the campus but found no explosives, Aguilar said. At about 11 a.m., officials said students would be released for the day as authorities conducted a second precautionary search.

No injuries have been reported.

Students were being moved through cleared areas of the campus and released to their parents “in an orderly fashion,� Aguilar said. Officials announced shortly before 11:45 a.m. that all students had been safely evacuated.

Aguilar said about 2,200 students attend the high school.

Nearby Arroyo West and Mountain Meadow elementary schools were also locked down as a precaution, sheriff’s officials said. By 11:45 a.m., normal operations had resumed at those schools.

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