Parent keeps child at home after ‘kill’ list circulates at Pennsylvania school

A parent at a Pennsylvania school is keeping their son at home after the student appeared on a “kill list” circulating among 5th grade students.

The parent, who wishes to remain anonymous, received a call from the school on the same day of the Covenant Christian school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, which killed three students and three adults, as well as the transgender shooter.

“Everyday i think of school shootings and hope the most people die,” one student wrote while circulating the list, which the parent shared with the Philadelphia Inquirer.  

“I hope the following people will get shot,” the student continued, listing the names of students.

Lower Merion School District officials, where the list was circulating, did not share information about the list with most parents, said the Inquirer.

Several parents were angered when they learned at a townhall meeting that the students involved in making the list at Bala Cynwyd Middle School were allowed back into school.

Acting Superintendent Megan Shafer told the Inquirer the district had investigated the threats and determined no credible evidence existed that the students who circulated the messages were an actual threat.

The superintendent told parents they had investigated the threat using a model developed by the University of Virginia and also consulted with law-enforcement officials.

“If you’re going to deem this to not be a credible threat … there still needs to be a little more transparency as to why parents should feel safe with these children being readmitted,” one of the parents said, according to the Inquirer.

Previously, the district had canceled a traditional Halloween costume parade over concerns about safety and “inclusivity,” said local ABC 6 Action News.

About the “kill list” and accompanying messages, Shafer said the district was required by law to keep any identifying information about the students involved and any possible disciplinary action private.

“This protection is required by law under FERPA and, because there is no credible threat to the school community, there is no applicable exception to FERPA,” she claimed in a message to parents.

But that does not mollify the parent, whose son is staying home for now.

“To me, the idea that a text message chain which references school shootings and makes a kill list is deemed to be, quote, ‘no credible threat,’ is absurd,” the parent said, according to the local Fox affiliate.

“We elected to not send out child back to school into that environment which would have served to put him back in a building with students that put him on a kill list.”