Parents in Livingston say their children received death threats from a fellow student at Eastside Intermediate School, and they are frustrated that the student remains in class while they say their concerns have gone largely unanswered.
Watch Livingston student death threat story here:
The incident began when a student searched "how to kill your friend" on a school computer during a 5th grade group project, according to parents.
The school's IT department flagged the search.
Keith Chandler, one of the parents, described what happened.
"The computer got flagged because one of the kids typed in how to kill a student," Chandler said.
Carrie Dean, another parent, said the search was quickly detected.
"The IT department was alerted that something was searched on the computer, and it ended up being how to kill a friend," Dean said.
When questioned, the parents say the boy admitted to the search and laughed.
Three days later, they say the boy told one student, "I am going to kill one of you."
Chandler kept his daughter out of school following the incident.
"I'm angry," Chandler said. "That's my firstborn. This kid threatened. A threat on my kid is a threat on me, and I don't take kindly to threats. So I'm trying to go about this professional, nice, good, civilized way, and we'll see how it plays out, but something's got to be done."
Dean posted about the incident on social media, but the post was removed.
"I had posted something on a Livingston mom group page, saying just so you guys are aware that this happened at a local elementary school," Dean said. "I didn't name any students names or anything. And somebody from the school board asked the admin of that page to remove it."
Dean said the incident scared her son so much that he did not want to attend a school fishing field trip that included the student who made the threats.
"He just couldn't stop talking about how excited he was," Dean said about her son and the trip. For him to not want to go, that showed me big time that he was actually scared. I go, 'Honey, I think we are going to keep you home because of this.' He said, 'Okay, that sounds good to me.'"
The parents say both the principal and the superintendent told them the school is following protocols and that there are privacy issues surrounding the student.
"They have to protect the kids' privacy, so it's understandable" Chandler said. "But at the same time, the kids need to be protected first, the ones that were threatened, not the one that did the threatening."
Three parents each spoke with the principal seeking answers.
"'What is going on? What is happening? What are you doing?' All they could tell us was that they are following protocol and procedure, and they are going to investigate it," Dean said.
As of Wednesday morning, the parents said they still had not heard back from the principal or the superintendent.
Livingston Schools Superintendent Chad Johnson declined an interview, saying he would be meeting with the Livingston Police assistant chief and an officer.
In a written statement, Johnson said:
"Livingston Public Schools investigated the reported policy violation and found the matter provided no credible evidence of any safety concerns to students or staff. Because the matter involves protected privacy interests, we cannot provide additional details at this time. We take all concerns seriously and follow established procedures when investigating such matters."
Before that meeting, Livingston Police Assistant Chief Andrew Emanuel said the school resource officer is investigating.
The parents say the boy remains in school, and they have not received reassurance from the school district that their children will be safe.
"And this is a big warning sign that isn't taken seriously," Dean said.
Chandler said his questions to the school went unanswered.
"How are you going to protect the kids?" Chandler said, adding that neither he nor Dean's husband received a satisfactory answer.
Dean said her husband pressed the school directly.
"My husband said, 'What can you do to assure my son is safe?' And again, 'Well, we're following procedure.' 'Okay, well, that's not answering my question,'" Dean said.
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