FLORENCE, Ky. (WKRC) – Leaders for the Boone County School District are under fire for allowing a student who made a “kill list” back into class alongside the very same students he apparently threatened.
About a month ago, Boone County Superintendent Matthew Turner announced he was letting a student back into class with the very same students he had threatened more than a year ago.
A fellow student discovered the “hit list” of nearly a dozen students written in a notebook of an eighth grader at Conner Middle School in late 2021.
Administrators expelled the student who wrote it for a year, the maximum allowable by Kentucky law.
Local 12 is not identifying the student because he is a minor and because of privacy laws.
But Turner ruled the student would be allowed to return to Conner High School for his freshman year after the expulsion and attend class next to those on the original list.
The principal at the school told parents the decision was made just before the holiday break. The principal’s son was also on the list.
Another of those threatened is the son of Rob Bidleman, who is considering pulling his two kids out of school.
“Wouldn't it have been nice to have more than a week's notice as a parent to understand what's going on?” Bidleman said. “If I did want to pull my student, I couldn't have even have completed the process before he came back.”
Bidleman said his son has run through a gamut of emotions since classes resumed earlier this month.
"A little bit of ‘Why me,’ a little bit of anger, a little bit of frustration,” Bidleman said. “At times I think anxiety, but I think it's difficult for any young person, any child to express these types of feelings because most adults have never even went through the thought that somebody was trying to kill them."
Debbie Zegarra is a special needs and collaboration teacher inside Conner High School who has her own experiences with mental health crises as her son Ethan committed suicide in 2018.
She says those on the list are very stressed, but she is also worried about the returning student and says the district could be doing more to help with the mental health of those at the school.
"They just sobbed because they are so stressed out and their anxiety level is so high,” Zegarra said of one of the students she has been counseling. "I am very concerned about the student in question and his family because they most likely at this point feel like the whole world is against them."
District leaders declined interview requests.
In a statement, Turner said in part:
“All appropriate safety measures have been taken ... The Kentucky constitution guarantees the right to a public education without prejudice... And we are obligated to follow state law.”
Several Conner parents have met with local lawyer Ed Massey, who served on the Boone County School Board for more than 20 years and just finished a term as a state representative in Frankfort.
He says parents are exploring how to change state laws to prevent a repeat of this scenario.
"When legislators get involved it's often because it's been either mishandled or something is discovered at the local level, they feel needs a response,” Massey said.
In a separate statement, Boone County school administrators also said they hope this situation brings attention to Kentucky's education laws and the challenges they create for public districts.