Latest bomb threats to Davis library, schools again included anti-LGBTQ speech, police say

Davis authorities cleared another bomb threat Monday morning targeting a county library as well as schools in the Davis Joint Unified School District, which delayed school start times for about an hour.

The school district said in a Facebook post its offices, Martin Luther King Jr. High School, North Davis Elementary, Birch Lane Elementary and the Davis School for Independent Study were targeted by the threat. The Mary L. Stephens branch of the Yolo County Library system was also targeted again, according to district officials.

Just before 8:30 a.m., district officials reported police and sheriff’s deputies cleared the bomb threats.

The reported email is at least the fifth bomb threat reported in recent weeks targeting the library, the Davis Police Department said in a statement Monday, with some of them also threatening local schools.

The messages contained anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, according to the statement.

“The Davis Police Department does not take these criminal threats and acts of terrorism lightly,” the statement said, in part. “We understand the harm, anxiety and unneeded stress that these threats have been causing our community. While bomb threats are rarely credible, the officers will continue to respond and take each incident seriously.”

Local TV news station KTXL-TV, known as Fox 40, was one of several recipients of the emailed bomb threat, and the media outlet alerted authorities, said Yolo County Sheriff’s Detective Matt Wirick. Sheriff’s deputies cleared the library.

Wirick said no suspects have been arrested, but their investigation is ongoing. They have executed several search warrants seeking electronic data, but any suspects used technology to conceal their identity, he added, and the person who issued the threat could be from outside of the U.S.

“It gets more complicated as technology evolves and it gets easier to do as technology evolves,” Wirick said.

But there isn’t a safety risk from Monday’s threat, Wirick said. The tactic appears to be a disruption measure, he added.

Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel said in a statement that the IP addresses of the emails sent so far show they came from other countries, including Nigeria, but that basic technology can be used to disguise the true location of the sender. The internet isn’t controlled by any government entity, which means it can be used anonymously, he added.

The FBI is helping the Police Department investigate the threats and assisting Davis Joint Unified in developing response protocols, the statement said. The school district did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

“From a broader perspective, these types of incidents are part of a national trend affecting numerous cities across the country,” Pytel added.

School officials said that King High and the independent study programs would start classes Monday at 9:15 a.m., while other schools checked out and cleared by authorities were expected to welcome students at 9:45 a.m.

Monday’s incidents were the third such bomb threat against schools since students returned from summer recess.

On Wednesday, police searched multiple Davis campuses — as well as two homes of district employees — after bomb threats were made by email early in the morning. “The language and content of the threats have some similarity to the previous bomb threat incidents at the Yolo County Library in Davis,” officials said.

No arrests have been made in either of the latest incidents, Beckwith said. An emailed threat makes it harder to narrow down a suspect, he added.

To ensure safety, police must go to the schools when reported, he said. It’s a strain on department resources and doesn’t allow officers to respond to other pressing concerns, he added.

In August, a bomb threat containing anti-LGBTQ hate speech prompted authorities to evacuate the library and forced a shelter-in-place for the nearby schools. It was the third threat against the library that week, authorities said at the time.

In February, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. High was evacuated after receiving a bomb threat sent through social media.

A few months later, the school was evacuated again when officials found a written bomb threat on campus. Students were taken to a nearby park for early pickup.

Davis Joint Unified operates 17 campuses in all — nine elementary schools, four junior highs and a high school, as well as independent studies and the Da Vinci Charter Academy and a related junior high program. In all, the district educates roughly 8,300 students and has 800 people on staff.

The library itself has been a focal point for conservative activists after it asked a speaker to leave in August for repeatedly misgendering trans women competing in sports.

Anti-trans and anti-gender non-conforming hate crime acts rose by about 55% from 2021 to 2022 in California, according to data from the state’s Department of Justice.