ROANOKE, Va. – A decision has been made for the student who allegedly made threats against classmates and a teacher in Roanoke City.
This comes after parents expressed their ongoing concerns about the situation, saying even after hearing from school leaders they’re still not sure they can trust them.
Back in October, the student made death threats against his classmates and a teacher. Parents didn’t find out about it until one parent saw a string of texts on her child’s phone outlining the threat.
Parents then brought up their concerns at a school board meeting this week after they heard the student who made the threats would be allowed to return to the same school.
[MORE: Grandin Court Elementary parents ‘horrified,’ ‘blindsided’ by school shooting threat, district response]
“If I don’t do anything, what is my role in if something happens to my child?” parent Carrie Turnbull asked. Turnbull has a fifth grader at Grandin Court Elementary.
Since parents spoke out, school leaders have released various statements in response to parents.
“Statements come across as trying to discredit those of us who came forward,” Turnbull said. “That it’s misinformation and that we are acting out of fear, and I don’t think that is the case at this point.”
Turnbull and others said they need more from school leaders.
“It comes across as, you know, ‘Oh, don’t worry about it. We’ve got it,’ but I think that the problem is that we’ve seen this situation play out repeatedly across the United States,” Turnbull said. “We know that a lot of times, school systems, they don’t have it.”
Later on Friday evening, a robo call went out to parents with new information that a decision had been made.
“As you know, the threat assessment process was still ongoing. However, we have received parental consent to release that the student will not be returning to Grandin Court Elementary School for the remainder of the 2023-2024 school year”
Portion of robo call sent to Grandin parents