Today’s false alarm call that there was an active shooter on the loose at Bishop Diego High School in Santa Barbara was one of five hoax calls made today involving California schools. The FBI is investigating these calls as part of a possible coordinated action, but no such determination has been made. “Whether these are related, we don’t know yet,” said Sergeant Ethan Ragsdale, spokesperson for the Santa Barbara Police. “But potentially they are.” Ragsdale said nearly 100 law enforcement officers were immediately dispatched to Bishop Diego High School when the 9-1-1 call came in shortly before 1 p.m. alerting dispatchers that an active shooting was taking place. “It was an all-hands-on-deck, Code Three lights-and-sirens call,” Ragsdale said. It took law enforcement about half an hour to inspect the school’s interior and exterior to determine that no active shooter was, in fact, present.
Students were quickly evacuated to the parking lot of Sansum Clinic’s nearby medical offices on Pesetas Lane. A headcount established that all students had been accounted for. “I’m just so grateful it was a false alarm,” Ragsdale stated. “But whoever caused these students to be so stressed and terrified is absolutely terrible.”
Hope School, located nearby, also went on lockdown in response.