'THREATS' SPOOK SCHOOLS STUDENT REPORTS, INVESTIGATIONS RISE AFTER CAMPUS KILLINGS.

Byline: Holly Edwards and Joseph Giordono Staff Writers

The shooting at Santana High School in Santee nine days ago has set off a wave of reporting threats by students - and sharpened responses by officials - across schools in the San Fernando Valley and neighboring Los Angeles suburbs.

No violence has been reported and officials said many of the incidents were nothing more than playground talk that would not have been reported except for the heightened awareness over the Santee shooting spree that left two dead, 13 wounded and a 15-year-old facing trial as an adult for murder.

In some cases, officials said they investigated incidents involving emotional reactions from special-education students who forgot to take their medication and a 6-year-old girl at an elementary school in Santa Clarita was questioned by deputies after telling other students she had a ``hit list.''

``I asked her, 'What does it mean to have a hit list?' '' said Sgt. Lee White, head of the juvenile crime unit at the Santa Clarita sheriff's station.

``She said, 'These are all the girls I'm going to hit for making fun of me.' ''

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors responded to concerns over the Santee shootings by ordering that students caught with guns in school or threatening to bring guns to school be made to tour the coroner's office to learn what can happen firsthand.

In Santa Clarita, authorities have investigated student death threats in one elementary school and every junior high and high school, and nine students face possible suspension.

In the San Fernando Valley, Antelope Valley, Camarillo and other school districts, officials said they have carried out much more elaborate investigations than normal when threats have been reported.

According to Judy Burton, superintendent of Los Angeles Unified's West Valley District, 10 students have been suspended since the Santee incident.

None of them involved an actual weapon being brought to a school but consisted of verbal or written threats to perform acts of violence.

``Oddly enough, the week before the Santee tragedy, we held a management training meeting for all our schools on that very issue,'' Burton said. ``We talked about taking all threats seriously, and had experts meet with our crisis teams and our counselors.''

Each of the incidents was considered minor and met with a one-day suspension, Burton said. One case involved a student sending a threatening e-mail to a teacher.

``Most of these incidents are kids making inappropriate comments and not realizing that anything they say is going to be taken very seriously in this climate,'' Burton said. ``It is not funny.''

Burton said each school in her district has been instructed to send a letter home to the parents of every child reassuring them that school safety and emergency procedures are being reviewed and strictly followed.

At Hughes-Elizabeth Lakes Union School, in the 600-inhabitant mountain hamlet of Lake Hughes, officials called a parents meeting Tuesday night after students said they heard a fifth-grader threaten to bring a gun to school.

The boy had admitted Friday calling a schoolmate an ``idiot'' for cutting in front of him to catch a ball during a playground game, but he denied saying anything about a gun, school officials said. The boy's parents, called in for a conference, said he had no access to a gun.

After somebody contacted the FBI and sheriff's deputies, school officials said they called the meeting to provide accurate information. The boy faces no disciplinary action, officials said.

At Camarillo High School, a 14-year-old freshman was arrested last week after threatening over the Internet to ``blow up'' teachers, said Charles Weis, superintendent of Ventura County schools.

The youth was arrested and authorities searched his home, confiscating his computer as well as information on how to make a bomb, Weis said.

Other Ventura County area schools have reported a handful of threats but not as many as the 12 reported after the 1999 Columbine High shootings in Colorado.

``They've mostly been little threatening comments, just like after Columbine,'' he said.

But each threat is taken seriously, and students face discipline, he said.

``Even if they seem minor, we treat them just like the airports do,'' Weis said. ``These things have dramatically changed our campuses.'' Weis said fallout from school shootings across the nation leaves kids fearful, and that creates another problem.

``When kids feel scared, they arm themselves,'' he said. ``Every time I've taken a weapon off a kid, they say they had it because they were scared.'

Bill Card, director of student services for the Glendale Unified School District, said Glendale has not seen any suspensions since the Santee incident.

``Certainly we are looking at that, but we have not had any situations that have risen to the level of suspendable incidents thus far,'' Card said.

In Santa Clarita, White said, most of the threats were made by special-education students who were not taking their medication properly.

Just one of the students who made a death threat week was arrested, a special-education student at Valencia High School who threatened to kill his teacher.

Most students who make such threats are not arrested because they had no means of carrying out the threat and were simply acting in anger, but they can face suspension or expulsion from school.

A 9-year-old boy, arrested Thursday after allegedly bringing a .45-caliber pistol to Lampton Elementary School, was being held by Juvenile Court authorities pending a hearing Friday.

Classmates told investigators the boy threatened to use the gun on teachers and students, saying ``if anyone told teachers, he would shoot them,'' police said.

County supervisors agreed to require students caught bringing guns to school or making threats to tour the county coroner's facilities. It will cover students in all 81 school districts and 13 community college districts that the Los Angeles County Office of Education oversees.