COLUMBIA, S.C. — Some of Newberry’s public school district parents took to the internet to share concerns they had when it comes to school safety after threats to the school were made earlier this week, according to Newberry Sheriff Lee Foster. But they are not the only ones.
“It's been going on all over the state actually,” Foster said. “And I suspect all over the country.”
Crystal Shealy, a mother of three with children in the Newberry Public School District, is one of some parents facing a dilemma: whether to send her child to school amidst safety fears.
"I don't want to send my kid to school crying every morning," Shealy said. "Because secretly, when she gets out of the car, I'm the one crying too... and it's like, 'Okay, did I make the right decision in sending her?'"
That worry Shealy feels, like many parents, has increased in the recent past. After her seventh-grade daughter shared a troubling post with her. The post, which was circulating on Snapchat, warned of a potential school shooting.
"I'm scared—very, very, very scared," Shealy admitted. "Especially having a child with anxiety, and the fact that she will lay there and cry and say, 'Please don't send me to school because I'm afraid I will get shot.'"
Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster explained how the alarming post made its rounds on social media.
"We had a situation where a student made a post on Facebook and Snapchat, and of course, that was shared through everybody," Foster said. "Then the parents of some of the kids got it, and they shared it, and it kind of went viral."
The increase in recent safety threats across South Carolina, is leaving parents not only concerned for their children's safety, but also questioning the current security measures in place at schools.
"Metal detectors would give us a little bit of peace of mind," Shealy said. "It would show that they are implementing something. And if the bigger schools can do it, the smaller schools should definitely be able to do it too, no matter how many entrances there are."
The Newberry School District has acknowledged these concerns, sharing that they are exploring the possibility of installing metal detectors. However, officials noted that it comes with a high price tag and could limit where students can enter the building.
"I know somebody is going to say, 'Well, there is a price for safety,' but in this case, it's a little bit more than that because it takes at least two people to effectively run a metal detector in order to determine if somebody has got a weapon on them," Foster explained.
While the recent threat in Newberry was determined to be non-credible, Foster urged parents and students to report concerns to authorities directly, rather than relying on social media.
"We say this all the time, but, 'If you see something, say something,'" Foster said. "You don't have to necessarily see it, but if you hear something that you think has some credibility to it, then say something. But say something to people that can do something about it, rather than putting it out on the internet."