5th grade student’s outburst threatening shooting concerns parents

Mad River Local Schools officials said they have taken appropriate disciplinary action with the student, but would not elaborate what actions were taken citing confidentiality issues.

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“The student has been disciplined,” said Superintendent Chad Wyen. “The police have been informed, parents were called, police did a check at the student’s home and found he has no access to any firearms.”

No criminal charges were filed, although the student was advised by police further such comments could result in criminal charges.

Dean of Students Jeremy Finn told police he believes the student’s outbursts are spontaneous and without any reasoning, but the district wanted police to have a documented record of the incident anyway.

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Parents said concern over Friday’s incident at a school in Champaign County encouraged them to confront the district over the matter. The alleged victim’s father said he does not believe the accused student received adequate punishment.

“You can’t just come in to school and say, ‘I’m going to shoot you,’” said Ben Stemple, the alleged victim’s father.

An attempt to reach the family of the student who made the alleged outburst was not successful.

Tiffany Webb, another district parent, said she read about the alleged Mad River threat on social media and became concerned after the Champaign County incident.

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“That’s why I got so upset,” she said. “Facebook just got real, it really did.”

Wyen, the superintendent, cautioned against trusting everything on social media and encouraged parents to double check with school officials when concerned.

“Parents are quick to post on social media and once they post, it blows up like the old telephone game,” he said. “In this case there were a lot of false statements on social media and we’re working to clean up the mess.”

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