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Parent tells principal she’s going to shoot up elementary school, New Jersey cops say

A parent was arrested and is accused of telling a principal that she was going to shoot up her child’s elementary school in New Jersey, police said.
A parent was arrested and is accused of telling a principal that she was going to shoot up her child’s elementary school in New Jersey, police said.

A parent is accused of threatening her child’s elementary school by telling the principal that she was going to shoot up the school in New Jersey, police said.

This sent Jefferson Elementary School in Vauxhall into a lockdown around 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 7, according to Union Township police.

The parent, whose name was not publicly released, was charged with making a terroristic threat after authorities found her approximately one hour later, police said in a June 8 news release.

The parent’s alleged threat was made over the phone after she called the principal, the school official told police.

Police received a call from the principal who said the parent threatened “she was going to come to the school and shoot the whole place up,” the release said.

Law enforcement launched a search for the parent as the school was put on lockdown, police said. Children stayed inside their classes and dismissal time was delayed.

Police found the parent while she was coming home from work and she was arrested, the release said. Ultimately, the parent was placed in jail.

Nationwide, numerous threats against schools have emerged following the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School that resulted in the deaths of 21 people, including 19 children, in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, The Washington Post reported.

On June 6, police in San Antonio, Texas, said they discovered a teenager made social media threats about shooting up their high school, McClatchy News reported. The teen was arrested.

McClatchy News reached out to the Jefferson Elementary School principal for comment and was awaiting a response.

Union Township is about 20 miles southwest of Manhattan.

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This story was originally published June 9, 2022 at 10:34 AM with the headline "Parent tells principal she’s going to shoot up elementary school, New Jersey cops say."

Julia Marnin
McClatchy DC
Julia Marnin covers courts for McClatchy News, writing about criminal and civil affairs, including cases involving policing, corrections, civil liberties, fraud, and abuses of power. As a reporter on McClatchy’s National Real-Time Team, she’s also covered the COVID-19 pandemic and a variety of other topics since joining in 2021, following a fellowship with Newsweek. Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, she was raised in South Jersey and is now based in New York State.
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