Woodstock parent alleges a student threatened her daughter with violence, police say threat’s ‘not credible’

The mother of a sixth-grade Woodstock girl alleged on social media that a classmate threatened to shoot and kill her daughter, a claim district officials and police determined was “not a credible threat.”

Woodstock School District 200 and the Woodstock Police Department conducted a threat assessment of the situation at Northwood Middle School, district spokesman Kevin Lyons wrote in an email.

Detective Sgt. Joshua Fourdyce said police determined the boy who allegedly made the threat has no direct access to guns.

Lyons did not address the details of the situation and Fourdyce said he could not discuss any details because the incident involved juveniles.

But the girl’s mother wrote in a Facebook post last week and told the Northwest Herald that the boy pointed his finger at her daughter as if it were a gun and threatened her.

The mother shared text messages her daughter sent her at the time of the incident.

School was closed Jan. 26, the day after the threat, but the student was not in class from Jan. 27 to Feb. 4, the mother said

“Typically, the student is removed from school until that assessment has been completed. In this investigation, both police and school officials determined that it was not a credible threat,” Lyons said in an email. “He was suspended. I’m not sure how many days.”

The mother said she was unsatisfied with the district’s response and would like to see the boy moved to another school.

Any time a threat is alleged, school officials conduct a threat assessment in cooperation with the Woodstock Police Department, Lyons said. Typically, the student is removed from school until that assessment has been completed.

“In this investigation, both police and school officials determined that it was not a credible threat,” Lyons said in the email.

Woodstock police would not release a report about the incident because it involved juveniles, but Fourdyce said the department takes all threats seriously and follows an FBI model on threat assessments.

“Any threat toward a school or at the school – many of us have kids ourselves, I understand the mom’s concern in this situation. I am a parent and have kids in the school district,” Fourdyce said.

The police look at behavior issues, psychological issues, and working directly with District 200, disciplinary issues at each school or previous schools, Foyrdyce said.

“We spoke directly to the parents of the situation,” Fourdyce said. “We are confident he has no access to guns at home.”

The boy’s father did not respond to a voicemail or an email seeking comment.