MUSKEGON, Mich. — As several West Michigan school districts cancel school Monday citing threats of violence, at least one other district received threats — but leaders decided not to close.
Some parents weren't happy about the decision, and reached out to 13 ON YOUR SIDE to voice their concerns.
"It made my skin crawl, and my heart beat fast, because I love them," said Mary Scott, "and it's scary."
Scott is the grandmother to three kids in the Oakridge School District in Muskegon County. On Monday, she didn't send any of them to school. She said that any threat is not worth the risk.
"They definitely did not want to go either because they're scared," she said.
Sunday night, Oakridge Superintendent Tom Livezey sent a statement to the school community stating that they were notified about two potentially threatening Snapchat posts that were circulating social media. They proceeded to detail the events and conclude that school would not be canceled.
You can read that full letter by clicking here.
"If they haven't figured out where the threats are coming from, I don't think they should've had the school open," said Scott.
The school said they notified the Muskegon County Sheriff's Department and through an investigation said they did not need to close schools.
Mary Scott, though, was not taking any chances.
"We should never be sending the kids to school if there's any kind of threat," she said.
And her grandkids agree.
"I think they should've closed school because it's scary," said fourth grader Autumn Plank.
Scott said she was informed that only eight students in Autumn's class of 26 were at school Monday.
"Just because it happened somewhere else doesn't mean it couldn't happen here," said Autumn, "and we don't want anybody getting hurt."
During the school day, Oakridge High School had two Muskegon County Sheriff trucks parked outside of the front office.
"But how do we know a child's not already in the school, ready to do this," said Scott.
"It's pretty dangerous, because you never really know what's going to happen," said senior Max Remondino, "and it's a lot worse being a student, because it's scary."
Scott's other granddaughter, seventh grader Grace Harpe, agreed that it's a scary situation.
"I don't want people to die or get hurt," she said, "and no one should be joking about this kind of stuff."
In the school's note to families, they encourage the students and the community to come forward if anything seems threatening. Something Scott's senior grandson certainly agrees with.
"When it comes to people dying and a really bad tragedy like that, then you should definitely snitch on that," Max said.
Scott said she loves the Oakridge school system, but felt that even a threat that didn't concern law enforcement was still enough of a threat to close schools out of an abundance of caution.
"If there's other schools getting the same threats, and they're closed, we should be too," she said. "Those kids are no more important than ours. All kids are important."
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