LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) – Many parents feel concerned due to Westminster Christian Academy‘s way of alerting them about school threats.
An incident happened at the school on Friday, May 12. While the school sent a letter, a parent that wanted to remain anonymous said the first letter shared little details of the incident and what happened. The woman said she and a lot of other parents heard there was another threat where someone was going to pull the fire alarm and shoot up the school.
“The main concern is not full visibility into the incident and actual incidents because it’s multiple and not being forthcoming until pressed,” said the parent. “It seems like every communication from them has been reactive, not to the exact incident but reactive to parents making demands or the news showing up, but not reactive to the actual incident that happened Friday.”
WCA teaches students ages ranging from 3 to 19 years old. The concerned parent said in the following letter the school sent out stated the threat was not credible.
“We were never told how they determined whether it was credible or not. How did they decide that? We weren’t involved in that decision. We didn’t get to decide as parents if we felt that threat was credible or not to our own children,” she wondered.
The parent shared the student’s threatening post on social media:
“If I could murder the entire staff without jail time, I would in an instant. Y’all going to see me on tv and wonder why your lives are so worthless.”
Lafayette Police arrested Gabriel J. Guillory, 19 on terrorizing charges. The parent said she knows certain protections have to happen for minors. However, the student was not a minor. Therefore, she wondered why the parents were not notified of his behavior.
“He is over 18, and there was no need to protect [him]. It wasn’t like protecting a minor and not being able to divulge information about a minor. This was an adult that made a public post, and the school did not share that with us and did not make us aware that there was a threat made,” said the parent.
She adds, “I’ve seen less threatening social media posts that actually get carried out and make the national news, and that does end up in a shooting that is less threatening than what that post was. That’s the huge red flag running in fear for parents these days, unfortunately.”
Parents were given a chance to speak with school officials last Wednesday. However, the parent who spoke with News 10 was told the meeting was canceled. While some parents expressed their concerns, they were still not put at ease or at peace.
“They weren’t given direct answers. They weren’t looked in the face. Some of the questions were avoided,” she said she was informed by other parents who attended the meeting.
The parent questions if the school even notified the police about the threat as she found it hard to believe they waited five days to make an arrest. However, she hopes to get clarity on the matter.
“This school has always been known for being very strict on discipline, and it’s just very alarming that they have treated this so lightly,” she said. “This wasn’t given as much attention as it should have been, being that they’re known for being very strict, and everything else that this was kind of just minimized.”
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