Alameda Unified School District Superintendent Pasquale Scuderi posted message to concerned parents, students and community members on Tuesday regarding reports of two separate and “disturbing” incidents involving strangers on the Alameda High School (AHS) campus.
According to Scuderi on the AUSD website, the first incident occurred some time in the late morning on Tuesday, when a former student came onto campus and began to behave “erratically.”
The Alameda CARE team was called out and the young man was removed from campus by noon.
The CARE team assists with people who may be experiencing a mental health crisis. AHS staff requested that the CARE team do a safety check on the young man, as he had “alluded to students being afraid he would ‘shoot up the school’ some years ago,” Scuderi said.
The superintendent said that a second incident occurred just after 3 p.m., when a different man entered a classroom and touched a girl’s face. When a teacher asked the man what he was doing, he left the classroom, encountered two girls in the hallway and asked if he could kiss one of them. He then fled the building before staff could implement a shelter-in-place or lockdown, Scuderi said.
A teacher followed the man all the way to the Fruitvale BART Station, where the teacher asked the BART Police for help. Police were able to take a picture of the suspect but he was “lost at the station.”
“There are many details being sorted through at this time by both police investigators and school administrators,” said Scuderi. “We know these incidents are disturbing and frightening.”
The superintendent said that the staff at Alameda High School “continually” discusses scenarios like this and makes plans for such intrusions, such as to call the police immediately or go into lockdown, as Encinal High did on Monday after getting a report of a person with a firearm on campus. Authorities ultimately discovered that the threat was baseless.
Scuderi said that in the wake of these incidents, there will be a debriefing and review of “our own response with the Alameda High School leadership team, including our safety protocols, campus supervision responsibilities and other safety-related measures, as well as potential long-term facilities modifications that may serve to improve security.”
