Children threatening children at school

[Lynda-WA]

This info was given to the radio station by one of the people in a meeting. Not a parent of any of the children involved. The school will not say if a threat was made. A fifth grader made an explicit threat to several students *I'm going to go home, get my Dad's gun and kill you*. The school held a meeting to decide what to do. They notifed police and suspended the student for 5 days. During those five days they stated they don't know if the student will be supervised. A social worker has been called in to determine if the student is a threat. If she says not they will allow the student back after his 5 day suspension. The student has had numerous problems already including being disruptive in school. The girls threatened are terrified.

A caller during the show said his 4th grade daughter was threatened by a boy with a knife. He had had the knife at school all day, took it with him on the bus, after they got off the bus he pulled it out and said *I could slit your throat if I wanted to*. The girl's father has had problems finding out what actions were taken but his understanding is that the boy has been suspended for the remainder of the year.

What actions do you think should be taken when a student threatens to kill another?

In the second case the parents of the threatened student couldn't find out of the person who threatened their child would be allowed near her. I'm guessing the school said they had to protect the provacy of the child doing the threatening (even though the girls parents knew who he was). Do you think that is to much?

[Lynda-WA]

Update -The first threat was made on Monday. Another threat on Tuesday. The Police were called Wednesday morning (sounds like after the meeting when the child was suspended). The police went to the 5th graders home and found him home alone. A grandparent arrived while the police were there. A check through the house revealed there was a gun and ammo but the police spokeman couldn't say if they were locked up. The policeman at the house said it didn't seem as if the child was actually planning to leave the house and carry out his threats. The child has been charged with disorderly conduct by the police for making the threats.

The police spokesperson said that this is a fairly common senario.

[kathleen]

Hopefully, this will involve more than just one police and social worker visit ... that the 5th grader will undergo some type of counseling or testing to see whether it was just popping off or there is some underlying, more serious problem. I don't think you can be too careful anymore.

[kat]

Unfortunately it is a common scenerio and the school system can not be too cautious with this kind of behavior. Even younger than 4th and 5th grades you have troubled kids. I know first hand. I have a kdg. student making threats. He said he was going to bring a gun and shoot people. At first I just talked with the student about that. I saw no reason for making the front page news for suspending a 5 year old for what could have been "just talk". But the behavior continued: saying he'd killed his parents, and physically abusive to other students. I called his previous school and found out disturbing facts that revealed a pattern of abusive behavior. After conferencing with the parent and family doctor, the child is going for a 10 day psychiatric eval. This is a baby, but he is screaming for help.