Update: Guns and Suicide Threat Puts Mar Vista on Lockdown Again

Update: Story updated at noon to include quotes from parents, Principal Wes Braddock and Lt. Marco Garmo.

Around 9 a.m. Wednesday Mar Vista High School went on lockdown again after the school received a call from a person who threatened to commit suicide nearby using handguns, a sheriff's watch commander said.

The school was shut down from 9:15 to 10 a.m., said Lt. Marco Garmo.

"It's the same guy from yesterday," he said, adding that the caller seems to just want attention. "We're not playing in and giving him any more attention."

The suicide threat comes after  from a man who claimed he placed six bombs on campus and he was on a rooftop nearby with a rifle with a scope.

Mar Vista High School and Imperial Beach Elementary School were locked down as a result, but no bombs or sniper were found. 

Garmo said the sheriff responded Wednesday by patrolling the area but nothing was found.

The caller demanded he be put in touch with more sheriff's department officials. Once he was contacted by the sheriff's Crisis Negotiation team, he didn't want to talk anymore, Garmo said.

"It's disgusting," he said.

Efforts to locate the caller are ongoing, Garmo said.

Principal Wes Braddock, who was a principal at Sweetwater High School before coming to Mar Vista, also said he believes the calls may not be authentic.

Threats of this kind play with student's educations and the hearts of students and their families.

"I've been on this thing for the last 12 hours. I'm walking around campus yesterday with explosive sniffing dogs. I'm looking in trash cans. I'm looking in lockers," he said. 

"And in my heart, the sheriff isn't here so I don't want to put words in their mouth, but I truly believe that no time in the last 12 hours, since the first lockdown, has your child's safety ever been compromised."

Despite authorities belief that the calls may be a hoax, more than 200 parents and family members lined up outside administrative offices to get their kid out of school. 

"The system is not set up to handle 150-200 parents at a time," Braddock said.

The process took so long because education code mandates must be followed to assure that students are leaving with the person listed on their emergency contact cards and not an older friend or boyfriend, Braddock said.

Pamela Olvera was in line for more than 30 minutes before making it near the front of the line. She has two kids who attend Mar Vista and said she was more concerned for her children's safety yesterday when streets were blocked off and a helicopter circled the campus. 

Tuesday afternoon she said she was heading to work when she sent her kids a text that dinner was ready and instructions on what to do when they get home from school. Her daughter replied with one word: "Lockdown."

"I thought that's pretty advanced for someone her age. I thought she was saying I've got this on lockdown," Olvera said. She understood the campus was on lockdown after additional text messages before students were instructed to turn off their cell phones.

"If someone was going to do something, they aren't going to do it right in someone's face, or right in front of the police," she said.

Clee Gonzalez said he received a text from his kid and Pete Belury got a phone call when the campus went on lockdown. Both felt they it was fine if their kids stayed in school, but both said their kids urged them to pick them up.

Belury called the threat the equivalent of a New England snow day. 

"I could hear the kids in the background and it sounded like Lollapalooza," he said. 

Paula Hall was also in line to pick up her freshman son, and thinks the threats can be a source of concern and anxiety for parents and students.

As a member of the Student Site Council and the District Advisory Council, she spent part of her time in line asking parents how they feel about the threat.

"Some are concerned about their kid's safety. They think the school's handling it the best they can. They don't feel they're unsafe, but some felt it was too early to bring them back to school after all that happened yesterday. 

"The kids can be really concerned, especially in those moments don't know it's real or not," she said. "We shouldn't just blow it off."