Parents at four different Horry schools received emails about threats. Here’s what we know

Parents at four Horry County Schools received emails Tuesday evening stating that staff had received a potential threat at the campus.

At least one of the schools said additional police presence would be at the school.

However, details of the threat were vague, leaving parents worried and questioning whether they should send their children to school.

The emails were reported to have come from Whittemore Park Middle School, Loris high and middle schools and Waccamaw Elementary.

The email from Whittemore Park in Conway told parents that there would be additional police presence at the school after “administration was informed of a rumor that was circulating amongst a few students of an unspecified, unsubstantiated threat.”

Parents of students at Wacamaw Elementary in Conway received an email stating that there were threats discovered in one of the bathrooms Tuesday.

Mike Frederick, the new executive director of safety and security for Horry County Schools, said Wednesday morning that he was unaware of any additional police being sent to Whittemore Park. He said there may have been an additional school resource officer, but his office had not ordered any additional police presence.

Frederick said his office receives threats every day, and each one is evaluated for its credibility and the appropriate response.

He said a threat could come from a fight between two students, in which one child says, “I’ll kill you man.” “We have to treat that as a threat,” Frederick said.

Frederick said the district received an international threat recently in which a person threatened to blow up every school in Horry County.

“Our challenge is shifting through the wacky,” he said. “That’s why we have to be systematic” and go through every threat received.

When asked why the emails are vague and don’t provide many details, Frederick said that not all information about the threat is released because “we don’t want to muddy the water.”

Frederick wants to make sure that if he calls a school about a real threat, that it is taken seriously. If parents are notified about every threat, they eventually may not pay attention.

A message sent to Horry County Schools spokesperson Lisa Bourcier was not immediately returned.

Tuesday’s emails from Horry County school administration come after last week’s deadly school shooting in Georgia where two teachers and two students were killed.

Horry County Schools started its new school year with a multi-million dollar upgraded security system and safety procedures for its students and staff.

The new security measures come after several incidents that occurred the previous school year, including a middle school student bringing a gun to school. The school system also replaced its security director.

The student managed to bring the weapon into the school in a clear backpack even though the school had a metal detector and did random checks of bags.