MESA, AZ — An East Valley mom is questioning how threats are handled at her son's school.
Rachael, who didn't want to reveal her last name, says her son attends Red Mountain High School in Mesa. She says he received a text message from an anonymous number that read, "You're (expletive) dead."
"We assumed it was from a student we had some issues with from the school," Rachael said.
She says that same student also posted a video on Snapchat holding a gun. She says she contacted Mesa Police and the school.
The school says they can't confirm the original text message was from the student in question. Police say because that student wasn't sending direct threats in the video, and told police it was a fake gun, they couldn't do anything about it.
Rachael says she's not happy with that explanation.
"If a child is seen on camera with a gun, that gun should be confiscated," she said. "That child should not be allowed at the school."
She says school officials told her other students have also recently received threats, something she was never notified about.
"They said, well there's over 3,000 kids here. We can't get to every parent. It's impossible. So would you like to be put on a special list?" she said.
She says because of the safety concerns she still has, she's now removing her children from the school.
"We've seen so many different cases where people have lost their children at school," she said. "I'm not willing to be one of those parents."
The Mesa Public School District says they report all threats to police and parents. However, student to student threats are dealt with individually.
If the threat is campus-wide, all parents are notified. Police say the student in question is being referred to an alternative campus. However, it's for a separate issue that occurred on school grounds, not because of the alleged threat.
