Parents react to central Texas district closing because of school threat

BRUCEVILLE-EDDY, Texas (KWTX) - Some parents are relieved after a central Texas school district shutdown Thursday morning because of a school threat.

The Bruceville-Eddy Independent School District told authorities about the threat Wednesday evening which led to an arrest Thursday morning.

Kortney Long just transferred her son at Bruceville-Eddy ISD a week ago.

“Since we travel a lot I always Google the schools, make sure they got good reviews, make sure they got good score standings,” said Long.

Kortney Long said her heart dropped once she got word that Bruceville-Eddy ISD received a school threat Wednesday evening.

“For me to see that, it hurt me because it’s not supposed to be like that,” said Long.

Long said she respects how swiftly the school district handled the situation but said that more needs to be done before it’s too late.

“We’re doing something wrong; something is wrong. It’s becoming a normal thing and it shouldn’t be, it shouldn’t be normal at all. A lot of people are treating it as being normal, you shouldn’t be. The government is not going to fix this for us, we’re going to have to fix this ourselves. We need to put our foot down and we need to fix this,” said Long.

Director of operations for the National Association of School Resource Officers, Mac Hardy, said more parents are on edge with school threats, especially following the tragedy in Uvalde.

“They’re trying to enter the school now to protect their children because of what they saw in Uvalde. They’re not waiting, they’re trying to go inside. There is an Uvalde effect on our thought, and I think it adds more stress,” said Hardy.

Long said she was considering having her son homeschool instead.

However, she said she’s worried about him not participating in extracurricular activities.

“I don’t want to take anything from him, but I don’t want his life to end either because of something stupid. It’s a battle I have to do with myself,” said Long.

Long said these are scary times and she’s ready for a change.

“We’re people just like everyone else and hatred is starting to rule. It’s not pretty,” said Long.

The school district said it will reopen tomorrow with normal schedules.

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