Over the past two weeks, Esther Holguin says her grandchildren have been apprehensive about attending Santa Barbara High School.
"The kids are afraid. They don't know what to do. What do they do if something happens? Should we send them to school or not?" Holguin said on Thursday.
Her concerns stem from a spike in online threats to local school campuses which Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office representative Raquel Zick says come from all types of platforms.
"There are lots of ways that these are being shared, but the way that it should be shared is with law enforcement, a trusted adult, or a school administrator," Zick said.
Zick says the sheriff's office is currently investigating approximately nine online threats.
She says some have been re-purposed from other states across the country.
"There are also ones that originated in Santa Barbara County and that we, you know, track back to an actual person here," Zick said.
So far, no arrests have been made, but Zick says investigations are underway.
"We don't have any arrests, but we have tracked a lot of these back to the originating sources," Zick said.
She adds that when students or parents repost a threat it's usually to spread awareness, but it just causes more fear. Instead, she says, "report, don’t repost."
"The best way to look out for your friends and for your classmates is to share that with law enforcement so that we can look into it," Zick explained.
The Santa Barbara Unified School District declined to comment on this story.
