Crazy World Syndrome

On Wednesday, the last day of school before Christmas break, Devon came home and told us about a note he had received at school. It put us in a bit of a bind spiritually. Who wants to spend the holidays in fear? But who wants to ignore something that could be tragic?

Devon was called to the office before the last class of the day to pick up a note with his name on it. The note was stapled so only he could see what was inside. Someone had written his full name on the outside in very nice handwriting, Devon felt it must have been a teacher, not a student. Inside he found a drawing of a stick figure with spikey hair and a gun, a bunch of stick figures on the floor, and one stick figure in a desk with a bullet through the head. On the back of the paper was a snowmobile.

Devon showed it to the person at the school responsible for investigating these types of things before he went to the last class. She said it was very freaky. But she didn't take it or investigate at all. Devon showed it to a few kids in his class and it was unanimous that it was a very freaky note and he decided it needed to be turned in for investigation.

I called the school right away, and while I was on the phone asking how serious the threat seemed, a sheriff showed up at our house! I went to talk to him and he asked me if we were the Larsons, which we are not, and he confirmed the address, then asked if we rent from the Larsons, which we don't. He had some how ended up at our house, the correct address on his papers, for no reason legitimately. But I told him what happened and he called the town police for us, and they showed up within minutes.

The school did not even bother to call and tell us that this had happened, nor did they start investigating as far as we knew. The police gave Devon some advice about being aware of his surroundings at all times, etc. But they couldn't do anything because the school liaison was supposed to handle it, but he won't be back until school starts next week.

So, we went for 4 1/2 days with the assumption that Devon had been sent a death threat. We knew we needed to stay calm and not freak out, but we didn't want to ignore it, either. We trust God to keep us safe, but that doesn't stop a parent from wanting to make sure the steps are taken to protect your child.

Today we called the school and didn't really get anywhere at first. I told them I was not putting him back in school until they figured it out, but they were waiting for the teacher who got the note to get back from vacation in a few days, and for the liaison officer and the person who is in charge of these things to come back on Monday. Not soon enough for us. The trail could get very cold by then. So we told the principal that he needed to find that teacher and figure this out quickly. We were going to keep harassing the school until they did something, and I was willing to call the media if I needed to.

But less than an hour later we got a call from the principal. The teacher was found because he got into a bad accident the day he left and had been in the hospital, so he wasn't still out of town. Apparently, Devon and a girl in his psych class were doing an experiment and had asked a couple of classes to draw something they saw. The class that this note came from was one they had planned to ask, but Devon thought they didn't get to, but his partner apparently did it without telling him. The kid who drew it turned it in late, so those two things kept Devon from associating it with his experiment. Not to mention the fact that he wasn't looking for pictures of someone being shot in class. But he said that explained the snowmobile.

The principal said they would be talking to the kid about what he drew since it was so disturbing. But he felt that it was not a threat against Devon, especially since it was the teacher who sent it to Devon, not the kid.

It is a crazy world out there, and when something like this happens, you have to know it really could happen to your family. We are so relieved that it wasn't aimed at Devon, but are sad for the kid who drew that picture. I am very thankful that we didn't let fear ruin our holidays.