What was expected to be a day filled with high spirits and class pride turned into a day of unenthusiastic emptiness on school campus this Friday. In response to rumors that had been circulating this past week, the school’s last rally of the year was postponed and classrooms were left desolate.

The rescheduled rally will take place on April 17, only this time with a different venue. Instead of being held in the gym, students will gather together at the football stadium for one last rally of the year—something that hasn’t occurred since the school’s infancy.

In an email sent out to parents on April 3 by Sergio Canal, director of Secondary Education and Pupil Personnel Services for the Walnut Valley Unified School District, Canal addressed and clarified rumors that led to the cancellation of the rally. The email revealed that an argument took place within the DBHS parking lot on April 1 between an unruly student and a campus security officer. Eyewitnesses to the event stated that the student was driving erratically and speeding through the school parking lot after school hours. In an attempt by the security officer to halt the student and have him present a form of identification, shouts and threats were made. The Walnut Sheriff’s office was quickly contacted and officers arrived at the scene to handle the situation.

After a reportedly thorough investigation on the student, officers concluded that no credible evidence was connected to the threats made from that of the student. “[Officers] assured school leaders that the student in question was being dealt with appropriately and that normal operations at the school could occur as usual on Friday,” as stated in the email.

A concern over the threats caused a frenzy of conspicuous rumors to circulate around school campus. This prompted many students to perceive that the threats were aimed towards Friday’s rally and as a result, DBHS Principal Catherine Real announced that postponing the rally until a later date would be the most appropriate way to go about the situation.
“I’m not worried at all,” said DBHS Principal Catherine Real “the rally is back to being about school pride and having fun without any outside interference.”

On April 3, DBHS continued on with its regular schedule like any other school day, but with a superfluous number of student absences. Despite the fact that the student making those threats had been detained and dealt with my authorities, a significant number of students chose to remain in the comfort of their home rather than show up to school on April 3.