Redwood City police said they are prepared to respond to any threats after schools throughout California, Washington State and elsewhere received threats on social media platforms on Friday.
The threats, which mainly came through Snapchat and seemingly originated in Texas, was said to contain multiple typos and grammatical errors.
It read: "This Friday September 15th We will open fire on schools, we are taking some weapons, knifes and many things to start a disaster on schools, we are doing that on one of the schools on the North So be aware and plus we might also do it on the Homecoming party's on the 16th so just to let y'all know to be careful if you don't wanna get hurt, or else just don't come to school and stay home. Spread out this message to be aware or if you dont wannt get injured."
The Redwood City Police Department has partnered with other law enforcement agencies to determine the threat's validity.
"Authorities there contacted the person who sent out the post and it appears to be of no merit. No specific schools were mentioned in the post. RCPD officers are aware of the situation and are prepared to respond if needed," the department said in a news release.
The threats came on a day when multiple law enforcement agencies in the area were experiencing phone outages to their dispatch and 911 systems.
Palo Alto and Mountain View police departments sent out social media alerts on Friday that their systems weren't functioning due to a major AT&T outage. Emergency calls for police, fire and medical assistance were being routed through Santa Clara County dispatchers.
Redwood City's emergency dispatch and police phone lines have not been affected, a police dispatcher said.
