A teacher says she fears for her safety after one of her fourth grade students allegedly threatened to kill the class via a direct message. In a viral video, Ms. Craver, also known as teachaladyy (@da_fit_teacher) on TikTok, walks viewers through the student’s message and how the school reportedly responded.
The video has over 436,000 views and over 6,700 comments.
“I don’t know if I’m crazy, or if I’m just too passionate, or what’s going on, but I had a student direct message me and tell me that he was gonna kill the class,” Craver says.
Craver goes on to say she responded by asking the student to clarify if that’s what they meant to say in the message, in case it was a typo or a mistake. The student reportedly confirmed that they wanted to kill the whole class. Craver says she immediately pulled the student out of class and called their parent to explain the situation.
The teacher also says this is not the first time the school has had an issue with students jeopardizing the school’s safety. Craver says that recently, a student brought a BB gun to school, and another student had a loaded gun in their locker.
Craver says that, to her surprise, the student who sent the direct message was in her class the next day, per the school administration’s decision. The administration reportedly told Craver that they had handled the situation privately and that the student only sent the message because they were upset.
@teachaladyy Am i wrong? #teachersoftiktok#teachertok#teacherproblems ♬ original sound – Da_fit_teacher
Craver says she did not feel safe going back to teach because the administrators were not taking the student’s threat seriously. Viewers agreed the teacher’s concerns were valid and that the threat should not be handled lightly.
“No ma’am. He can’t come back to my class. As a matter of fact… I’m not coming back until they handle it,” one comment mentions.
“You’re not just advocating for yourself, though, you are also advocating for those students. You should’ve emailed and contacted parents,” says another.
Craver uploaded a follow-up video saying the administration finally responded to the threat “properly” after she continued to speak up about how it was handled and emphasized that letting such threats fly under the radar is not in the best interest of the school or even the student who said it.
“I’m going to be very verbal, especially when it comes to my students’ safety, when it comes to mine, and also when it comes to a student who looks like me … and is not being taught properly of consequences in the real world,” Craver says. “It’s not reality that as a young Black [boy] growing into a Black man that you can just get so upset that you say these things and people are gonna coddle you and justify it and say, ‘Oh, well, I understand; you just felt upset.’ No, sir, it does not work like that.”
School shootings in the United States are not an issue to be taken lightly. As of Feb. 21, there have been 13 school shootings this year alone on college campuses and K-12 schools, according to a recent CNN report.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Craver via TikTok comment for more information.