Parents concerned over alleged school threat

Parents are upset on social media after a letter was sent home with students who attend McCabe Union Elementary School District in El Centro.

The letter addressed information received from a community member who overheard students making statements related to school violence.

School officials say a community member notified them in December about a conversation they overheard where students made alleged threats inciting school violence.

An investigation revealed the threats were not credible, but now some parents are upset because they just found out about the incident this week.

“We had parents who attended our school board meeting on Tuesday night and they voiced their concerns over some misinformation that was out in the parent community. Our school board members responded to that and one of their actions to take was to send out a notification from the school district,” explained Superintendent Dubbe of McCabe Union Elementary School District.

Parents responded to the letter that was sent home with students Wednesday night taking to social media to voice their opinions and concerns asking why these students weren’t expelled? And why are they still at school?

“All of the information was reviewed and the district has moved forward with the appropriate disciplinary action, added Dubbe.

A message thread was created on social media and labeled concerned parents. It engaged over 130 users and people expressed outrage, even stating that they were going to show up to the school.

But the vibe on campus Thursday seemed quiet, with few parents showing up to the school’s office.

The incident was investigated by Imperial County Sheriffs in December and was deemed not credible and not posing increased risk to school safety.

“We have quite a bit of procedures in place just throughout the day that students will feel safe. We do have some things in place for future trainings that we are going to be doing and so definitely want to make sure that our staff and our community feel that we are taking a proactive role in making sure that the campus is safe,” said Principal Lopez of McCabe Union Elementary School District.

“We have five administrators that all are McCabe parents so even when we take off our administrative hat our response to any concern any information that comes across this campus is also, that’s an extra layer we take into consideration as a McCabe parent. There are long established measures that are here each and every day and if there were ever a need to take an extra measure, we would not hesitate to move forward,” explained Dubbe.