A Virginia woman has been charged after she appeared to threaten school board officials while they met to vote on whether to lift a mask requirement.
The Luray Police Department announced that 42-year-old Amelia King would be charged with oral threat on school property. King was captured on a video broadcast for the Page County Public Schools school board, which was considering a vote on mandating masks for students, on Thursday, stating, “My children will not come to school on Monday with a mask on… I will bring every single gun loaded and ready.”
When a board member again cut off King, noting that three minutes is a policy, she said: “I’ll see y’all on Monday.”
Later during the meeting, a school board member read an emailed statement from King where she apologized for her phrasing.
“I in no way meant to imply all guns loaded as in actual firearms, but rather all resources I can muster to make sure that my children get to attend school without masks,” she clarified. “My sincere apologies for my poor choice in words.”
Nonetheless, school officials condemned the threat, saying in a statement that the district “does not take these kinds of statements lightly.” Superintendent Antonia M. Fox and school board chair Megan Gordon said there would be increased police presence at each school within the district on Friday and Monday.
“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 community should interact with each other,” Fox and Gordon said in a joint statement Friday. “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.”
King was arrested Friday and was later released on $5,000 bond, according to Luray police.
Footage of the incident can be seen below:
