The Paris News

Protests continued Tuesday at the Rivercrest Independent School District trustee meeting.

Several speakers challenged the board to further investigate events at the school, including the case of two fourth grade boys accused of writing in a class journal a plan to attack the school.

Protests have continued near the school, with the protesters asking for parents to keep their children home in protest of the school’s handling of that incident and others.

School superintendent Rickey Logan said Tuesday he sees no signs anyone followed the protesters advice and pulled their children out of school.

“We have the normal absences because of sickness or other reasons,” Logan said. “In fact, we have more kids in elementary this month than we did last month.”

Logan said in the past few days, the school has had 18 to 21 absences, about the normal number at this time of year.

Logan said he also has not seen any students being pulled out of school permanently in the protest.

Earlier, the father of a fourth grade student who said the boys told her they would shoot her if she told about the journal entries did pull his daughter out of Rivercrest Elementary to be home schooled.

After several protesters spoke at the public forum during the board meeting, more than a dozen school teachers and staff stood up in defense of the school, the superintendent and the elementary school principal.

Teachers said they feel completely safe at the school.

They defended elementary principal Karla Coker, saying she has an open door policy and continuously buys clothes, school supplies and needed items for her students out of her own pocket.

A statement signed by several teachers said “Rivercrest is a great school, and the Rivercrest Independent School District is the largest employer in the Talco-Bogata area.”

In the opening speeches in the public forum, the father of the girl allegedly threatened by the boys renewed a call for investigation of the incident and removal of the superintendent and principal.

Another speaker said security was non-existent at the school and people could walk in off the street without being challenged by anyone. She demanded the boys be removed from the campus and sent to alternative school, and called for the newly-seated school board to investigate the incident more closely and also investigate possible conflicts of interest among the school staff.

The two boys were disciplined for their entries in the class journal and are back in school, but protesters said the reprimands were not strong enough and a security risk remains in the school.

Logan said more than 75 percent of the audience at the school board meeting was in support of the district and its policies.

Since learning of the alleged threats to the school, protests have been set up in front of the school, but earlier this week a protester was asked by the school to move 500 feet from the campus to conform to state law.

She did and continued her protest there.

In another case, a mother challenged the board to look into the fact that her son had been told he must shave and cut his hair.

She presented photos of board members who supported facial hair during their school years, and said girls and boys shouldn’t have to go by different rules.

“If boys can’t have long hair and beards, girls should not be allowed to wear makeup and should have to cut their long hair,” Mary Duckworth said. “I don’t think there should be a different policy for boys and girls.”

During regular board discussion, the use of ID badges was considered, and Logan said he and his staff will weigh the pros and cons of ID badges for students and make a recommendation back to the board at a later session.

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