Schools in Page County, Virginia, are on high alert after a mother of a child in the school system threatened to bring weapons to use against the school board.
Amelia King was speaking at a school board meeting on January 20, 2021, when she issued a stark warning. While decrying the school's mask policy, King ended her three-minute-long rant with an outright threat against the safety of the members of the school board and potentially even those who attend classes and work at the schools themselves.
The entire meeting was recorded. In the video, King begins things by explaining that when she goes off script at school board meetings, she gets "passionate." She says, "I typically come to these meetings with a written statement; I like to sound educated, and when I go off the cuff I get really passionate."
King then references another meeting she spoke at, adding that the moderator told her to stop speaking because she had exceeded her time limit. From there, King launches into a rant against Governor Glenn Youngkin's mask policy, which King appears to not agree with. She is in the middle of a sentence when the moderator tells her that her time is up.
Once the buzzer sounds, King gets to the point: "All right: no mask mandates. My child, my children will not come to school on Monday with a mask on. All right? That's not happening."
She then adds a statement that is definitely being seen by the school system as a threat: "And I will bring every single gun loaded and ready to … I will call every …"
Page County Public Schools issued a statement following the incident: "Last night at our School Board meeting during the Citizen Comment period there were comments made that referenced weapons and were perceived by many to be threatening in nature. Page County Public Schools does not take these kinds of statements lightly."
The statement continued: "Not only do comments such as these go against everything we wish to model for our students, they go against the very nature of how we as a community should interact with each other. Violence and threats are never acceptable or appropriate. This kind of behavior is not tolerated from our students, faculty, staff, nor will it be tolerated by parents or guests of our school division."
The school system went on to add that it will be providing additional police support at subsequent school board meetings. On top of that, the Luray Police Department confirmed it is investigating the incident in its entirety.
King has seemed to realize the seriousness of what she implied, as the police department later offered another update: "The statement that was made absolutely caused public alarm, the parent that made the statement realized that, and immediately contacted law enforcement to apologize because the statement was not intended the way it was perceived."
On January 21, 2022, the police department charged King with a violation of the Code of Virginia 18.2-60, Oral Threat While on School Property. It also confirmed that she was being held on $5,000 bond.
Thus far, King has not issued a statement.
