A 22-year-old woman accused of threatening the Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees last month has been arrested.
Tanya Diaz was charged with making a criminal threat, a felony. She was booked into Santa Cruz County Jail on $25,000 bail, according to jail records. She was no longer in custody as of Friday afternoon.
Police do not believe there is an active threat to the community or PVUSD staff.
Board President Carol Turley did not respond to a request for comment.
Watsonville Police did not specify the nature of the threat.
Trustee Misty Navarro said during the board meeting Wednesday that it came after the May 20 meeting, when the board voted 5-2 to approve more than 100 teacher layoffs.
Navarro then read a comment she said was posted on the Lookout Santa Cruz website.
“Who do we need to shoot for this? I think we should start taking these people out, they’re not going to stop just saying.”
A handful of people had “liked” the comment, Navarro said, adding that it remained on the Lookout website for six hours before it was removed despite her requests.
The Pajaronian has reached out to Lookout for comment.
Navarro said the threat reflects the often vitriolic culture that has come to define board meetings.
Navarro pointed to comments made during Wednesday’s board meeting, including Trustee Gabe Medina calling her a “racist” and a “white supremacist” without offering evidence.
“I have a balance of logic and emotion, and I will vote in the way that I believe is the best for my community,” Navarro said. “But I will not do so at my own peril. And I do not believe that my volunteer service warrants a death threat, which is why I said 100 percent, please prosecute this person to the full extent of the law.”
After the district reported the threat, investigators served a search warrant at Diaz’s residence in the 200 block of Mesa Verde Drive.
No firearms were found during the search, and no guns are registered to Diaz, police said. During the investigation, she admitted that she wrote the threatening social media comment.
“The Watsonville Police Department takes all threats seriously, whether made in person or online,” WPD stated in a Facebook post. “Every threat is thoroughly investigated to ensure the safety of our community.”
“I raise this tonight because it does not exist in isolation,” Navarro said, pointing to a recent San Jose Mercury News story detailing a significant rise in threats against public officials, particularly women.
“This district is not exempt from that trend,” she said. “We owe one another and the public we serve a basic standard of conduct when it does not include language inviting violence against elected trustees. I ask that Lookout and this community hold the same standard.”
