A high school teacher in East Texas has been placed on administrative leave after he took to social media to criticize his district for allegedly failing to take a student’s threat seriously.
Patrick Durbin, a sixth-grade social studies teacher and coach at Waskom High School, said a student threatened to shoot him on January 18.
He immediately reported it to his principal and a counselor, but later saw the student who allegedly threatened him at a country house later that afternoon.
Waskom Middle School, where a student allegedly threatened a teacher last month.
(Google Maps)
“It wasn’t even reported to the police department that this kid threatened to kill a teacher in front of other students and said he had a gun,” Durbin said in a video posted to TikTok. “Everyone wonders why the teachers are leaving and resigning. It’s bad management and people cover up for kids who do things to endanger other people’s lives.”
Waskom ISD superintendent Rae Ann Patty said officials were alerted to a threat, but after an investigation determined that “at no time were students or staff in any danger.”
“Mr. Durbin’s placement on administrative leave was not due to his reporting the threat to his principal. However, I am not at liberty to discuss the situation further as it is an internal personnel matter,” Patty told Fox News Digital.
2 IOWA STUDENTS KILLED, 1 SCHOOL EMPLOYEE INJURED SHOT AT SCHOOL, 2 SUSPECTS IN CUSTODY
Waskom ISD said it sent a notification to sixth-grade parents about the threat, telling them it was investigated and no student or teacher was in danger, according to KSLA.
“I feel fear for my daughter and her classmates,” Sarah Thompson, a mother, told the local news outlet. “I feel like there was a security threat this morning with a student who was involved with these permitted threats on campus.”
A classroom shooting at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, occurred Friday after an incident between a student and a teacher, authorities said.
(Schuerman/The Virginian-Pilot, via Associated Press)
The ordeal comes amid a wave of violence in schools across the country, from primary to university level.
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On January 6, a 6-year-old boy pulled out a gun in class and shot his teacher, Abigail Zwerner, at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia.
Zwerner now plans to sue the school district, according to his attorney, who said other teachers and employees warned administrators multiple times that the boy had a weapon, “but the administration didn’t bother.”
