'Another day' at Yuba City High School

The 92 students who didn't attend Yuba City High School on Wednesday because of their parents' concerns about the possibility of gang-related violence missed a standard day at the school.

"It was just another day," said Bruce Morton, director of student welfare for the Yuba City Unified School District.

Though there was extra security on campus, Yuba City Deputy Police Chief Jeff Webster said "absolutely nothing happened."

Senior Kristine Xiong, 17, said the people responsible for starting the story spurred a reaction that included TV coverage.

"They did a pretty good job," Xiong said of those talking up what proved to be unfounded accounts of possible violence at the school.

Blake Parks, 50, said his 15-year-old son is safe attending Yuba City High.

"This is a good school here," said Parks.

Law enforcement had said rumors about a retaliatory gang shooting were not credible. According to the rumor, the shooting was to respond to the Labor Day driveby shooting of a Yuba City High student. David Guadalupe Rojo, the 15-year-old charged as an adult in the shooting, was not a student at the school.

School officials said there were 92 of the 1,800 students who specifically said they did not go to class because of the rumor.

Jonathan Smith, 16, a junior, said similar stories of gang violence have circulated a couple of other times during his years going to school.

"I've come to school every time," he said.

Seventeen-year-old Jose Lopez, a senior, said of the rumors that, "It just gives people something to talk about in Yuba City."

"Go YC soccer," he urged.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Ryan McCarthy at 749-4707 or rmccarthy@appeal-democrat.com