Some parents in the South Milwaukee School District are frustrated it took two weeks for the district to notify them of a deadly threat made by a student.
According to an email sent by the Blakewood Elementary School principal, two students threatened to kill a classmate. It was deemed not credible by police, however, TODAY’S TMJ4 obtained police records which show this was the second threat made by one of those students this school year.
During the middle of Spring break, Blakewood Elementary sits empty, but the principal was back to work early notifying parents about a threat made on March 22.
“This happened two weeks ago, why am I just hearing about this now?” said parent Jacob Anderson.
Anderson received an email from Blakewood’s principal on Thursday, saying in part, “… a 4th grade student got upset with another 4th grade student at recess and said he was going to kill him. Another student joined in and additional comments were made."
A South Milwaukee police report shows, “(they) told this student that they were going to divide up his body parts between the two of them when he was dead."
"When police get involved, obviously that's something serious enough to be taken as a serious threat,” said Anderson.
Anderson said he’s upset the district acted reactively rather than proactively in notifying parents.
"It seems to me, or the perception to me is that this kind of was a 'sweep it under the rug' kind of thing and hope that it doesn't get out,” he said.
Police records also show, “…that (one of the students involved) had an incident earlier in the year where he made a list of Blakewood students that he wanted to kill."
The district told TODAY’S TMJ4 they cannot verify if parents were notified of that incident. Parent Amber Mason doesn’t believe the students involved are being properly punished for their actions.
“The school only wants to do suspension and that's not good enough,” Mason said. “I don't mean to sound like whatever, but my kid's safety comes first.”
TODAY’S TMJ4 reached out to the district to ask if the students were punished. We’re told they can’t comment on disciplinary action.
