CLARE COUNTY — A Northern Michigan school district under fire after some parents say they feel concerned sending their kids to school.
Those concerned parents are questioning safety protocols after two recent incidents at Farwell Area Schools.
Loretta Ferris said her boyfriend’s kids attend school in the district.
She said rumors have been circulating online about two middle school students talking about shooting up the school but the district has not responded, even though kids were talking about this way before the school knew about it.
“We want to be able to reassure our kids. But if we don’t know anything, how can we reassure our kids that they’re safe and that nothing’s going to happen to them?,” said Ferris.
Interim superintendent Carrie Carncross said they took action as soon as a teacher overheard students talking about it.
She said there was never a weapon brought to school, and no imminent threat, which is a parameter before notifying parents.
“It was discovered that there was a text thread that was from nearly a month prior, and it made reference to the following day,” said Carncross.
She said a student told another student not to come to school the following day, something bad would happen. She said four students were mentioned in those texts.
“Each of the students who were listed, their parents were contacted immediately,” said Carncross.
But Ferris says that’s not good enough.
She said her boyfriend’s son believed he was on the list and was afraid to go to school.
“Which we don’t know because we’ve never seen a list. We’ve never been told anything by the school, anything like that. So it’s just, you know, it’s a high concern because nobody wants to send their kids into danger,” said Ferris.
Ferris said they were notified in another case at the elementary level earlier this week involving a student who brought a box cutter to school, so she doesn’t understand why they weren’t notified this time.
Carncross said the district is aware of the firestorm of complaints and more information will be coming out this week.
One man, Robert, said his grand-daughter was affected by the box-cutter incident and that she was afraid to go to school for telling a teacher about the box cutter being brought to an after school program.
“One of the students approached her and told her that, if she wanted to join their club, that she would have to be cut. And if she didn’t join the club, then she was not going to be able to play with them ever again,” said Robert.
He said the school did let them know they were investigating but more needs to be done to communicate with the parents and educate kids that it’s ok to tell an adult if there’s a threat
“I understand that they don’t want to start a major panic and cause a lot of chaos over something that may or may not be a real threat. But at the same time, parents should be aware of. Hey, you know what? There’s something going on,” said Robert.