Arkansas parents discuss the consequences of students making school threats

BRYANT, Ark.- Many Bryant parents have been concerned, scared and angry as threats continue to increase across the state. Now, those feelings are hitting home as a student was arrested Wednesday for making a threat against Bryant’s Bethel Middle School.

All of the parents are raising the question of whether the consequences that students are seeing are enough to create an end to the issue.

“It’s very, very, very scary,” parent Mary Allen said.

Many students arrested for making school threats are being charged with terroristic threatening, much like the 12-year-old Bryant student.

However, some parents think the punishment should be more strict to help discourage this type of action in the future.

“Maybe they should get charged the same as an adult,” Bob O’Neal, another parent, said.

Other parents say that a child’s actions should reflect on the parents.

“I do feel that it needs to be on both sides, I think the parent and the student,” Hornet’s mom Dee Long said.

Long says the school has done a great job informing parents and being transparent with parents when a threat has been made.

“The administration this year has done wonderful at keeping us in the know of what is happening, good or bad at the schools,” Long said.

However, Long believes that it can’t just be left up to the school to educate kids on the weight that their actions hold and that parents need to step up to do their part in curving the behavior.

“If the parents aren’t going to do anything about it, the parents need to be responsible for their kids’ actions,” Allen said.

Allen says the thought of actual school violence is terrifying, even if the students don’t intend to carry it out.

“Wastes people’s time and energy to do stuff like that and someone needs to be held reliable for that,” Allen said.

The Bryant Police Department asks that if anyone sees a threat or hears of one, to report it immediately.

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