North Carolina teacher charged with threatening to ‘shoot up’ elementary school, police say
Orange County NC May 25 2019
A North Carolina teacher was charged Tuesday with threatening to “shoot up” an elementary school where she had worked, authorities said.
Kristen Thompson abruptly resigned Friday from Pathways Elementary School in Hillsborough, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said in a new release.
“This situation is being handled by law enforcement with the safety of our students and school staff as our utmost concern. Meanwhile, this situation is also being dealt with by school leadership as a personnel issue as well as a safety one,” authorities said.
Thompson’s fellow teachers allegedly overheard her make “threats to shoot up the school” and alerted law enforcement, the release said.
“They always say if you see something say something, that goes for if you hear something,” department spokeswoman Alicia Stemper told WNCN-TV.
Thompson’s name didn’t appear on the school’s website Tuesday, but an archived version indicated she worked with children in the special education program.
“She’s around the kids all the time. So I mean that’s scarier for a teacher, for a teacher saying that stuff than it would be somebody outside,” James George, a Pathways Elementary School parent, told the station.
Thompson was charged with “communicating a threat of mass violence” and received a $1,000 bond, police said. She is due in court on June 14.
