FORT WORTH, Texas — Parents are keeping their children out of school and districts are on high alert this week after threats were made against at least 12 school districts across Texas, leading to multiple arrests and classes being canceled.
The startling spate of threats, made via phone and social media, come just months after a mass shooting in Uvalde sparked statewide debates on school safety, mental health and gun control. The threats also come the same week the Texas School Safety Center began conducting random safety audits at the direction of Gov. Greg Abbott, to ensure exterior school doors were properly locked and secured.
In videos circulating on social media, armed law enforcement officers were seen Tuesday entering classrooms in Houston, where students raised their hands and hid under desks. A similar situation unfolded in Waco, though the searches ultimately found no danger. Disruptions continued Wednesday, with classes in Thorndale schools being canceled as a result of threats and police investigating threats against schools in Amarillo and Aldine. Threats in Dallas and Fort Worth earlier this week also were found to be false alarms, although increased police presence was added as a precaution.
While the quick investigations have led to suspects being arrested or threats found to be illegitimate, the incidents are taking their toll, with shock and fear disrupting classes just six weeks into the school year, advocates and parents say.
Some parents, like Jes McFarlain, who has a child who attends speech classes at the Azle pre-K program, are considering removing their children from school over concerns about lack of communication and safety.
Azle parents upset over threat communication
Authorities in Azle were made aware of threatening messages and separate posts that mentioned Azle High School on Sunday night. The investigation began and continued through the day Monday, ending in the arrest of a former student Monday night, police say. A video of weapons and additional threats were also brought to the attention of the district Monday morning, according to an Azle schools spokesperson.
The district notified parents of the high school students Monday morning, with several updates going up throughout the day. But parents at the pre-K program, which is on the same property as the high school, were never notified, according to McFarlain. Instead, those parents found out from other parents and social media.
“My child’s teacher didn’t even know,” McFarlain said.
A spokesperson for Azle schools said that all parents should have been notified by Monday afternoon and evening and that all principals were forwarded a copy of the original email.
The episode startled the mother, who said she did not send her child to school Wednesday and is weighing her options for the future.
“You think the redneck, podunk town would at the very least on the heels of Uvalde respond in force with security protocols for our children,” McFarlain told the Star-Telegram. “They failed, and not only did they fail, they are trying to gaslight us and tell us that it wasn’t as bad as it seems because they caught him. This time they caught him, and thank God he wasn’t closer.”
Other parents shared concerns on the district’s Facebook page about not knowing about the threats before sending their children to school Monday and some said they hadn’t been notified at all.
Volley of threats put communities on edge
Steven Poole, the executive director of the United Educators Association, said that even one instance of a threat being made against a school can impact an entire community.
“Every time there’s a report of a threat, it puts people on edge, not just people in the school, but parents in the community and surrounding the schools, too,” Poole said Wednesday. “So what we saw in Houston and Waco yesterday, still puts people in North Texas on edge.”
Zeph Capo, the president of the Texas American Federation of Teachers, said the threats in Houston were against a school in his neighborhood. In that case, rumors were spreading that 10 students had been killed.
“My heart sank to my knees when I heard this,” Capo said. “It’s bad enough that we are concerned and wondering, like, who it’s going to happen to next, but it’s a whole new level of concern, when you hear it’s that actual school that’s in your neighborhood.”
Capo said that beyond the immediate disruptions when classes are paused or canceled, the threats leave students and parents in a state of fear.
“I listened to the parents, I listened to some of those students and it completely disrupts their education,” he said. “Whatever they learned yesterday, I’m sure it was all forgotten and out the window by the time this all happened, and probably will, at minimum consume the rest of the week, with the potential that like, the PTSD, the after effects of this happening will completely have people on edge for I don’t know how long.”
Safety audits begin this week
The threats come as new safety audits, mandated by Abbott, begin at random.
The Texas School Safety Center, a clearinghouse for information and training about school safety formed shortly after Columbine, has amplified its role in ensuring schools are complying with state laws intended to keep campuses secure in the months since the shooting in Uvalde killed 19 students and two teachers.
This summer, Executive Director Kathy Martinez-Prather said districts were expected to schedule drills for the year, review their multi-hazard emergency plans and active threat plans and identify gaps and deficiencies.
“One of the things that also came out of this is the governor charged the Texas School Safety Center, with now conducting intruder detection audits over the course of this next school year across our Texas schools — that includes charter school districts,” she said.
When the audits occur, Martinez-Prather stressed that the superintendent and local law enforcement will be notified and that the plain-clothed auditor will not be simulating an actual intrusion.
“We’re not telling you what date and time or what campus we’re coming to, but we are calling at the beginning of the month letting them know we’re going to be out at some of your campuses this month doing this work,” she said. “In addition, we are not simulating an intrusion, want to be very clear about that.”
Parents concerned about doors, gun control
As the audits begin, Fort Worth parents are sharing stories about unsecured doors leading to possible security situations. Hollie Plemons, who pulled her children out of Fort Worth ISD schools and regularly questions the district at board meetings, heard from one parent that an unsecured door was accessed by a homeless man who gained access to a school.
“She is deeply concerned that homeless men are entering the building due to doors being unlocked,” Plemons said in an email to a board trustee on Sept. 12. “I have discussed the broken door locks multiple times at board meetings & in private conversations with trustees & admins yet here we are still dealing with broken door locks.”
A spokesperson for Fort Worth ISD said that all doors have been checked across the district, a self-audit that was required by the state to be completed by Sept. 1
In an email to Plemons reviewed by the Star-Telegram, district officials acknowledged issues that allowed a person who is experiencing homelessness to access a campus and vowed to fix the problem. They also said parents were not notified, and should have been.
Plemons said parents who are still concerned should check whether doors are locked when they drop their kids off at school and if they aren’t “don’t leave them.”
“This is a basic form of security, just lock the door,” she told the Star-Telegram.
Jason Amon, another Fort Worth parent, said the responsibility for school safety extends beyond the district.
“I have every confidence that our school administration is doing what it can to try to keep our kids safe,” he said in a statement. “But in a society where it’s sometimes easier to get an assault weapon than it is mental healthcare, their powers are limited. I believe that accountability lies with the politicians who have failed to pass common-sense gun reforms, even those with broad public support.”
But as parents continue to see reports of threats, they are demanding that more be done.
“My child is 4 — he doesn’t know what active shooter protocols are,” McFarlain, the Azle mother, said. “They don’t make Kevlar vests for pre-Kers. They don’t make Kevlar backpacks for pre-Kers.”
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