LIVONIA, Mich. (WXYZ) — Some parents at Niji-Iro Japanese Immersion Elementary School in Livonia say they were kept in the dark after some drawings they believe to be concerning were found taped around the school building.
"The notes were pretty graphic and did say things like 'I will kill you.' It was written in Japanese too, so that's more direct towards the school," Bridgid Casey, a concerned mother, said, recounting the images she saw.
February 5th was the first-day parents told me their students found the drawings and turned them into school administrators. More drawings were found again on February 10th.
Parents told me they were never notified by the school admin until the following Tuesday- almost a week after the first incident.
"It's actually another parent that asked me if my son had talked to me about it, and my first thought was 'why were we not notified?'" Said Bridgid.
Not only were parents kept in the dark, but Livonia police were also never notified by the school. It was a concerned parent who called the department looking for answers.
"Why did it take a parent to call the police? You treat every threat as credible unless proven otherwise," said Johan Cawood, another concerned parent.
On Tuesday evening, when the district finally sent their first communication to parents, the principal said:
I wanted to let you know that some students found drawings depicting figures that could be scary for students on the playground during recess yesterday as well as Wednesday of last week. There were some cryptic messages on some of the images, but no direct threats were made.
We are working closely with our staff as well as our Administrator of Public Safety on the situation. I have met with classrooms and asked students if they knew any information.
If you have any information about the drawings, please let me know.
Rather than putting parents at ease, it added to their confusion. All of the parents I spoke to said they are frustrated with the vague language used by the district.
"I feel that everything they're going to tell me through a filter, and they try to give as little information as possible," said Johan
After I started looking into the parents' concerns, the district invited some of them to come in and discuss their concerns.
"The transparency between the parents and the principal was the biggest problem," said Bridgid
When I reached out to Livonia Public Schools for some answers about their plans for mending trust with the concerned families, I received the following statement:
As was clearly communicated with WXYZ upon inquiry, the drawings that were placed on the school grounds at Niji-Iro school did not contain threats toward a specific person or the school.
The situation was thoroughly and immediately investigated by school and district administration, including our School Resource Officer (SRO) from the Livonia Police Department, our Administrator for Public Safety, and our third-party security team. The drawings were not deemed to be threatening in nature.
Furthermore, a communication went out earlier this week to all families. We have also met with parents concerned about the drawings. They indicated that they were satisfied with the school’s response and appreciated the opportunity to seek further clarification. There is no safety concern in this situation.
But parents told me they still don't feel like they can fully trust the admin at LPS.
"There's a disconnect between the administration/teacher side and the parent/ student side. Seems to be intentional distance between those two groups," said Johan
