It is argued that ignorance is bliss, but when that leaves someone’s life in danger, that all goes out the window.

After reports that an EC student claimed he was going to cause a massacre akin to UCSB, the Union staff took every precaution available and stayed away from the newsroom and EC if possible. The administrators of the school were equally aware of the situation, and did not believe that telling students about the threat to be urgent.

If there is one thing that all school shootings have in common, it’s that there are always signs. Rarely are they quite as apparent as what we just experienced.

In advance, we knew who the suspect was, what he looked like, and where he was.

The EC police department took full control of the situation, but did not share any details regarding the threats. Only one small section of the school, the paper’s newsroom, was aware of the situation. All other students and faculty were relying on ECPD’s judgement.

The ECPD has the respect of the Union, but honestly students and faculty should be receiving notification of these sorts of threats from them before we go to print.

Fortunately, the suspect was under 72 hour watch at a psychiatric ward, and there were no incidents.

Regardless, it’s not up to the police department to decide whether a threat that was directed at specific members’ of EC staff was under control and could be kept under wraps, simply because of a restraining order was put into place.

Restraining orders only work when people know who they are looking out for. No name or photo was given for a long period of time, outside of the police department.

It’s fair to argue that telling all of EC that they were threatened would cause a ruckus that was most likely unnecessary. But most likely is not good enough. The margin for error is zero when lives are at stake. Because of the fact that it was reported, there is still a ruckus on campus. But it is focused on the failure of the EC administration, rather than the person who threatened the school.

These aren’t rumors which we are dealing with, the psychiatrist believed his threats were credible and that he was a legitimate threat.

El Camino is not alone in suspected school shootings. Pierce College of Woodland Hills recently had a student making threats over social media, and found weapons and ammunition in his house.

Pierce College responded quickly, shutting down the whole campus to protect itself and having a press conference the same day the news was revealed. This is the type of response El Camino should be striving for, not a faculty meeting days after the occurrence.

It was the Union that made this story headline worthy, because the ECPD and Tom Fallo did not consider this such a big deal. No, the threats weren’t immediate, but they deserved to be recognized.

The backlash the ECPD will hopefully lead to better communication between them and the students. But for the time being, young Americans continue to lose trust in the police department.