MIDLAND, Texas — Midland parents are upset after they say they were not alerted in a timely manner about a potential school threat.
According to MISD, a message threatening a shooting at Anson Jones Elementary was discovered on the playground Monday evening.
Several parents tell NewsWest 9 that they were not informed about the threat until a call was sent out around noon Tuesday.
A group of parents gathered outside the school Tuesday afternoon in an attempt to get some answers from the school and the district.
Midland ISD issued the following statement:
Yesterday, a message that threatened a shooting at Jones Elementary was discovered yesterday evening on the playground. Midland ISD Police immediately began investigating, and the investigation continues. School proceeded as normal today, though officers have been on campus as an added security measure. We encourage parents to speak with their students about the seriousness of making threats or violence of any kind and to contact campus Crime Stoppers with any information.
The Principal of Anson Jones Elementary, Angie Aron, spoke to reporters on Tuesday and said students discovered a note on the playground on Monday, which said the school would be shot up today.
Aron and other MISD staff members began to immediately gather evidence, and figure out who were the possible suspects of the note found in the playground.
The call to the parents about the note happened Tuesday afternoon once the school was able to practice due process and Aron's investigating into the possible suspects was over.
"I do appreciate the feedback that the parents were giving me that they would like to be notified, but I did not have an accredited sense of thinking that this was going to be a danger to the students until I gathered the evidence to prove that yes this could be a danger to our student population," Aron said.
This situation follows several other threats and acts of violence across the Permian Basin, including in Odessa, Crane and Pecos.
