FORT WORTH, Texas — Parents gave the administration and board members of Northwest Independent School District in Fort Worth an earful Monday night at a regularly scheduled board meeting.
Many of them had children named in a detailed and alarming school attack plan constructed and edited by three Truett Wilson Middle School students who are now facing felony charges for making a terroristic threat.
The document, which was created and edited online, included a 'watch list' that named 25 students and seven staffers. The list was attached to alleged plans to attack the campus, per district officials.
Samantha Garcia was one of the parents who attended the first board meeting since the incident. Her son, an 8th grader at the middle school named in the document, hasn't been back to class since being alerted about it.
The district has excused absences from Thursday, Friday, and Monday due to the safety threat, but that's it.
"Like any parent, our hearts pretty much sank when they called us and told us about this list," Garcia said. "My son doesn't want to go to school, and I'm not going to sit there and tell him that he has to."
While the district is adding police at the campus until the end of the school year and has disciplined those responsible -- Garcia and others showed up to the meeting to demand that the district release the names of the students charged and the plans they had devised to protect their children better.
Texas is one of the few states that allows citizens to seek a restraining order against a juvenile.
However, the district could not accommodate them due to federal student privacy laws and the fact that the students are juveniles. They also couldn't divulge any information about the students' attack plans.
Garcia said her son likely won't return until the district can assure her he'll be safe. With roughly 14 days left in the school year, she plans on keeping him at home.
Garcia told WFAA that it's frustrating. To her, the facts are her son's name being featured in a dangerous document that led to felony charges for others, but she has no idea who made it or what it even said.
"We will not feel safe until we know who was watching them and what they planned on doing," Garcia added.
The district told WFAA that attendance has ranged from 80% to 65% since the plan was uncovered.
Other parents spoke during public comment, saying they would keep their kids away from Northwest ISD campuses until the district revealed more about the students facing charges.
One even said that her child told her about being named in the document months ago, reported it to a teacher in February, and that it wasn't taken seriously.
After the meeting, Superintendent Dr. Mark Foust spoke to the parents at length in the foyer of the building, trying to answer any questions that he could. He promised to investigate if a staff member failed to report the document appropriately.
Though the conversation was constructive, it was easy to see how frustrated the parents were and how Foust wanted to lend a hand but had to stay within the law's boundaries.
One suggestion was to add more than one officer to the campus for the rest of the year and possibly have an assembly involving the parents and students named in the document to answer any questions they have.
Doing virtual learning was not an accommodating option, per Foust.
"Reassuring the kids that the district cares and letting them see they're not alone in this would help a lot," Garcia said. "They may realize that they can dip their toes back into where they went to school."
The path of the criminal cases involving the students charged is unknown. They'll have their days in juvenile court and likely be punished harshly, considering the evidence collected in their cases. In the meantime, they'll likely be placed in an alternative education program as their cases play out. However, per the district, that placement may only last up to 60 days.
Garcia worries that the students she doesn't know the names of may follow her son to high school.
While the district may have its hands tied by the law, in this situation, she doesn't think it's fair.
"There are so many what-ifs. What if he comes back even angrier because of all this happening to him?" Garcia said. "When they say it's going to be ok, let your kid return to school, I don't trust it."