WINDHAM – In the wake of school threats, school officials in Windham held a meeting Wednesday night for concerned parents and students. This comes after two threats were made towards the middle school.
“I sent him a text message and I said ‘I love you and be strong and I’ll be here as soon as I can get to you’ “ said Jennifer Bozio of Willimantic.
That was the Bozio’s reaction on Tuesday when she found out from her son a second threat was made to the school. That threat ended up being just a rumor on social media among students.
However, the first threat was in fact real. It resulted in a teen being arrested after they allegedly threatened the middle school in an Instagram post. The nature of the threat was never released to the public, but school officials assured the community the incident was isolated.
Crystal Magnan is a parent of a middle school student and said she does not know which threats are real or false anymore.
“Not knowing if it’s actually something that’s going to happen or whether it’s a child that is joking around. You just never know. It’s very nerve wracking,” said Magnan of Willimantic.
Students described the tense moment of how everyone felt on Tuesday.
“Just the safety of everybody that goes here. Just making sure that they’re okay and just making sure I’m okay and the safety of our school,” said Jazmine Cruz, student at Windham Middle School.
“Everyone in my class was screaming, talking about it and then my friend showed me a picture of what was happening and then I was just shocked at the fact of how someone could do this to a school,” said Jorge Hernandez, student at Windham Middle School.
“Everyone in my class was screaming, talking about it and then my friend showed me a picture of what was happening and then I was just shocked at the fact of how someone could do this to a school,” said Michael Serano, student at Windham Middle School.
The meeting was held by school officials and Willimantic Police and it was meant to brainstorm ways of how students can feel safe going to school.
Middle School Principal Dr. Marcus Ware said he wants to teach students to use their cell phones responsibly instead of causing false panic.
“Technology is great but we need to be responsible for how we use it, so we are talking about addressing those topics in advisory which is our time to meet with small pockets of students,” said Dr. Marcus Ware.
The meeting was the start of a continuing conversation. The principal told FOX 61 students will be able to talk about these issues in the way they choose to with hopes this does not happen again.