California high school closed for second day over Yik Yak threats

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A high school in an affluent oceanside community in Southern California was closed for a second day on Wednesday after online threats made on the social media application Yik Yak, which allows users to post anonymously, officials said. The threats arose in a series of Yik Yak posts on Monday targeting Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, just south of Los Angeles, prompting officials to briefly place the campus on lockdown that day and to close it on Tuesday. Police were investigating the social media posts. The school's principal, Ben Dale, posted a message to the Mira Costa website on Tuesday saying the school would stay closed on Wednesday but re-open Thursday with increased security and a police presence, as well as counseling for students. "We are unified as one voice in that we want students to come back to school," Dale wrote, adding that school staff would have a plan for how students will enter and exit the campus and what they will be allowed to carry. Yik Yak, a social media application available on smart phones, acts like a local bulletin board that allows a user to anonymously post statements that other people in the user's immediate geographic area can see. Police said the Yik Yak post that prompted the lockdown on Monday read, "If you go to Costa you should watch out very closely at school today." Other threats were made later on Monday, according to Manhattan Beach schools superintendent Michael Matthews. "Nice try costa, today was just a drill," Matthews said one of the threats read, while another post made reference to school shootings. Yik Yak has been used to make threats that have affected other U.S. schools. The Montessori School of Manhattan Beach's Peck campus, which is located near Mira Costa high, was also closed on Tuesday as a precaution, local television station KABC reported. A person who answered the phone at the school said it remained closed on Wednesday. (Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Doina Chiacu)