A Carmel Mountain Ranch elementary school that was threatened with mass shootings and violence was at the center of a new bill recently signed into law that criminalizes targeted threats to institutions, buildings and campuses.
Signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Oct. 11, Senate Bill 19 closes a legal loophole and allows violent threats made against schools, workplaces, houses of worship and other public gathering spaces to be more fully prosecuted.
Assemblymember Darshana Patel, D-San Diego, who co-authored the bill, said the previous law was ambiguous as to whether someone could be criminally prosecuted if the threat was made against an institution rather than a specific person. The issue gained attention after a man in her district, Lee Lor, 40, sent an email saying he was going to commit mass shootings at Shoal Creek Elementary School.
Prosecutors said it was one of 400 emails he had sent over the course of several months in 2023, stating he would commit a shooting at the school. In one email, Lor said he was going to “murder a bunch of children,” and another said killing them would “put a smile on my face.”
“When Shoal Creek Elementary School in my district received hundreds of threats, parents were terrified, kids were afraid to go to school and educators were frightened to teach,” Patel said.
During the trial, Lor’s attorney argued his client shouldn’t be found guilty because the email was not sent directly to the school and did not specifically threaten the school’s principal, Harmeena Omoto, who was listed in a criminal complaint as the victim. A similar argument led a judge to dismiss the criminal case against Lor in 2024, but prosecutors later refiled the criminal threats count.
Lor was ultimately convicted earlier this month and sentenced to two years in state prison, though he already served enough time in custody to be paroled.
“Our community was frozen in fear, but our laws couldn’t protect them because threats were only considered a crime when a specific individual was named and in sustained fear,” Patel said. “That loophole left entire communities vulnerable and let perpetrators walk free.”
Lor’s case was one of many from around the state that lawmakers cited in support of the bill, officials said.
The bill’s clarification on the law was praised by Newsom, who said it gave prosecutors the tools necessary to make California families feel safe. And San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan said it helped prosecutors prevent future mass casualty events.
“Making criminal threats is a felony crime even if there was no intent to carry out the threat; threatening words with the intent to cause fear and which reasonably cause someone to feel fear are sufficient for a felony charge,” Stephan said in a statement.
Poway Unified School District Board of Education President Ginger Couvrette said Patel and the bill’s other co-author, state Sen. Susan Rubio, D-Baldwin Park, listened to educators and families when crafting the legislation.
“Everyone here has seen firsthand how broad threats can disrupt daily life and cause real fear among families,” Couvrette said. “SB 19 gives us another tool to protect our campuses and respond effectively when those situations arise.”