MVHS held a shelter-in-place before school started on Tuesday, April 23, after administration received an anonymous phone call about a potential shooter on campus. The shelter-in-place came after several high schools in the Bay Area received similar threats, with Lynbrook High School receiving a phone call with the same threat earlier in the morning and Gunn High School receiving one on Monday. According to Principal Ben Clausnitzer and an article by Mercury News, prank calls about potential shooters had been occurring at high schools throughout the Bay Area for the past week, and he had anticipated this incident.

Upon receiving the call, MVHS administrators immediately reached out to the Santa Clara Police Department and LHS reached out to the San Jose Police Department. The police departments then worked together to resolve the threat, and by 7:45 a.m., there were approximately 20 officers searching campus to ensure student and staff safety. 

“I didn’t expect the police officers to initially go room by room,” Clausnitzer said. “They started that way and then as things became more clear with the information from Lynbrook and the phone call itself, they switched to just walking around campus and clearing campus. It can be concerning for students to actually see this happen, but the officers needed to make sure they’re approaching it from the standpoint of the utmost caution.”

Students who arrived at school in the morning were asked to wait in the office and the bus circle until the campus had been cleared by law enforcement at 8:24 a.m. During first period, Clausnitzer made an announcement on the PA system to update students and staff on the safety of the campus, and classes continued as normal for the remainder of the day. At 9:10 a.m., FUHSD and MVHS sent emails to students and staff informing them that there was no threat to the campus. 

However, many students arrived late due to the confusion. Senior Ananya Nadathur was driving to school when her mom called and told her about the shelter in place, after which she drove back home under the impression that the school day would be canceled. Once the all-clear was given and the update was announced by a district-wide email, Nadathur had to drive back to school and was 20 minutes late for her first-period class. 

Clausnitzer recognizes the impact this situation had on students and staff, and he strives to bring the community back to a state of normalcy. In his PA announcement, he encouraged students to talk to a trusted adult on campus if they were feeling uncomfortable or distraught by the events of the morning.

“It’s an unfortunate reality that schools in the United States, including MVHS, are having to deal with these types of things in 2024, and I wish we could be different,” Clausnitzer said. “At the same time, safety has to be our number one priority, so we’ll always, out of abundance of caution, approach these scenarios with caution.”