A Virginia county school district is increasing police presence at their schools after a parent threatened to bring loaded guns to school to protest their mask policy.
A parent at the Page County Public Schools board meeting identified as Amelia King said her children will not be wearing masks as the district recommends and she would bring loaded guns to school to protest the mask policy.
“My child — my children will not come to school on Monday with a mask on. All right, that’s not happening. And I will bring every single gun loaded and ready to — I will call every—,” King said during the school board meeting on Thursday before she was cut off because she ran over the three-minute allotted time.
“I’ll see y’all on Monday,” she said as she walked away.
Page County schools superintendent Antonia Fox and school board chair Megan Gordon released a statement saying the schools don’t take these kinds of threats lightly, according to ABC 13.
“Not only do comments such as these go against everything we wish to model for our students, they go again the very nature of how we as a community should interact with each other,” they said in the statement. ” Violence and threats are never acceptable or appropriate. This kind of behavior is not tolerated from our students, faculty, staff, nor will it be tolerated by parents or guests of our school division.”
Luray Police Department said in a statement that King is cooperating with their investigation and she never meant for her comments to cause alarm.
“The statement that was made absolutely caused public alarm, the parent that made the statement realized that, and immediately contacted law enforcement to apologize because the statement was not intended the way it was perceived,” Luray Police Chief Bow Cook said.
“The safety of the students and school staff are our number one priority, we are working diligently with the Page County School Board to ensure proper measures have been put in place for their safety,” police stated,” Cook added.
