Kids Kept Home After Social Media Threat Get 'Illegal' Absences

MASTIC BEACH, NY — Students who were kept home from the William Floyd School District Friday by parents worried about a social media threat were marked with "illegal" absences.

Parents turned to social media Friday to express their outrage: "A few of us parents have chosen to keep our kids home today because of the threat and we are told that they will be marked as an 'illegal absence.' This is absolutely ridiculous!" one mom wrote, adding that she'd be calling the district and raising "hell."

The threat sparked heightened school security Friday.

According to a message on the district's website, school officials became aware Thursday at 4:35 p.m. of "an anonymous social media threat to William Floyd High School and William Paca Middle School for Friday, Sept. 14."

The Suffolk County Police Department was notified and was investigating, district officials said.

"SCPD officers will be present across the district tomorrow providing support during arrival, dismissal and throughout the day. All schools will remain on lock-out during the school day per normal security procedures. The William Floyd School District will continue to be vigilant and follow all safety procedures in place to keep our students and staff safe," the message read.

Opting to keep their kids home, parents were livid to learn their children would be marked absent.

When asked about the situation, James Montalto, spokesman for the school district, replied: "The William Floyd School District works closely with the Suffolk County Police Department during these types of situations. We, along with the police department, take any threat extremely seriously. Please know that schools would be closed if the district or the police believed there to be any imminent danger to students or staff. In the interest of full transparency, we felt it important to provide the community the information that we had and were able to share at the time. At this point, the police are continuing their investigation, and, under their advisement, we are unable to comment any further."

Regarding the absences, Montalto said when school is open, children are expected to attend. "It is parental prerogative to keep their children home on any given day, but as a district, we must mark children absent if they are not in school, barring extraordinary circumstances such as the district being without large bus transportation for the first six days of school," he said. "Students received an excused absence if a parent or guardian called and said they could not get to school because they had no transportation."

One mom said ultimately, the decision was hers to make: "I am the parent; the school is not. . . my decision to make, not the school's. I gave birth to them and I will carry the scare if something happens to my child. So they are home for the day." She added that she felt safer, keeping them home. "There's too much going on right now and not enough information given to us as the parents regarding the issue for us to decide if it's safe or not."

Other parents were frustrated with those who kept their kids home and felt the district was justified: "I sent my kids to school because I have every confidence that the school district and police are doing what needs to be done to keep our children safe," one mother said. "These threats aren’t going away any time soon. Our schools are threatened every day. Should we then never send our children to school? My family will not live in fear and we will continue to trust in our school district and police."

The district said they could not elaborate on the nature of the threat Friday at the request of the police.

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