MÉRIDA.- On Monday October 7th, UADY’s School of Mathematics looked unusually deserted, students and teachers were nowhere to be found, but there was a strong police surveillance.
The reason was a “threat” posted on social networks, saying that a shooting was going to take place at the school.
When asked about the situation, a security guard at the School of Mathematics replied: “I don’t know anything about a threat, they just told me that there was no school today,”.
A couple of police officers could be seen parked a few meters away from the main entrance, carrying high-caliber rifles, while other SSP vehicles roamed the streets around the facilities, watching closely at any vehicles passing by.
All this was part of the operation that the SSP launched in the surrounding areas of the UADY Campus, after messages of a possible attack were posted on WhatsApp.
False alarm: the whole thing was “a joke”
Although it was also later clarified that the threat was just a joke on a WhatsApp group, the school and state authorities preferred to take the necessary precautions to avoid a possible tragedy.
UADY student Yael Chi posted on his classmates’ WhatsApp group a “warning” not to go to school today. And one of the group members, Kevin Basto asked him why; to which Yael answered: “If you want to die, then show up … I got a 45 revolver and a 15 caliber shotgun … I have 40 bullets for the revolver and two shotgun cartridges … so don’t show up, unless you want to die today …”
Police vehicle outside UADY’s School of Mathematics (Photo: Diario de Yucatán)
The text message literally unleashed psychosis, the director of the school, José Ángel Méndez Gamboa, issued a statement in which he informed the suspension of all academic activities on campus today Monday October 7th, and asked for the authorities’ intervention, to conduct the proper investigation.
Shortly after, it was clarified that the whole thing was nothing but a bad joke. “I have no weapons and I will not kill anyone. I was just kidding, I don’t have any weapons and I’m not going to kill anyone. I was just playing around, man … ” Yael wrote down.
In other social networks messages it was stated that Yael Chi has been already expelled out of school, and that he publicly admitted that he “messed up”.
The Yucatan Times Newsroom
