Eagle Pass ISD Receives Third Social Media Threat of School Shooting, This Time at Memorial Junior High
By: Ricardo E. Calderon, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2022
Eagle Pass Independent School District received a social media threat of an alleged school shooting at Memorial Junior High on Monday, November 14, 2022, causing the District Police Department to take immediate action and request the assistance of local law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, to investigate the sources of the threat and detain the individuals responsible for the most recent threat made today.
This is now the third known social media threat allegedly made against a school or campus of the Eagle Pass Independent School District within the last three weeks, causing serious concerns among parents, students, teachers, administrators, and law enforcement agencies that one of these threats may actually come to fruition in this Texas-Mexico border community of Eagle Pass.
Eagle Pass ISD Superintendent Samuel Mijares held a hastily called press conference on Monday, November 14, 2022, at 11 a.m. to address the public concerning the most recent alleged threat received today concerning Memorial Junior High, which has 1,050 students enrolled, and announce that individuals had been detained for allegedly making today’s threat against Memorial Junior High, and the legal and disciplinary consequences facing individuals who make such threats against a school or campus under state and federal laws.
Mijares stated that all individuals detained making alleged threats against a school face up to five years of prison if convicted of such criminal offense under either state or federal law. In addition, Mijares stated students also face disciplinary action by the District, including expulsion for the entire school year, if found responsible for making such threats.
Mijares added that the frequency of the social media threats made against Eagle Pass ISD campuses in recent weeks has caused parents to rush to their school campuses to pick up their children and thus creating chaos and interference with District and other law enforcement agencies’ investigation and response to the threats.
Mijares stated Memorial Junior High was not evacuated because all the known individuals suspected of making today’s threat had been detained.
Mijares highlighted the Eagle Pass ISD is taking the following immediate steps in response to these threats:
1. Each school campus receiving a threat will shelter in place;
2. Students will be returned to parents after shelter in place is lifted or cleared;
3. Any school days lost as a result of any threat will have to be made up this school year;
4. Each school will conduct community education training on how to respond to a threat and the procedures parents are to follow;
5. All school counselors will educate students on the legal and disciplinary consequences of making such threats;
6. Students detained making threats will more than likely be expelled for the school year;
7. Individuals detained making threats will be prosecuted according to state and federal law, facing up to five years in prison if convicted;
8. All Eagle Pass ISD technology will be upgraded to respond to any threats;
9. All school campuses and facilities will have metal detectors and wands installed; and
10. Each Eagle Pass ISD Police Officer will have an AR-15 assault rifle issued and trained to use such weapon and receive response protocol, including direct and immediate confrontation of any active shooter.
Many Eagle Pass school parents and citizens have privately expressed concerns that their worst nightmare is that our community may be targeted similar to El Paso or Charleston due to the politicization of our community by state and federal politicians concerning the immigration crisis facing the southern United States border. The anxiety level is very high and genuine in our community and these local social media threats against our schools only heightened the situation.
