Nearly one-fifth of students at Southwest Junior High School were absent Tuesday in response to a death threat found scrawled on a restroom wall.
Discovery on Monday of the message, which threatened violent acts Tuesday with a handgun against unspecified people, kept 19 percent, or 126, of the school's students away from classes Tuesday.
"You don't want to take a chance," said Tina Yates, who kept her seventh- and ninth-grade students home for at least a day. "I hope they can find who did it."
Seven percent of students were absent Monday, the first day after spring break and traditionally a heavy day for absenteeism.
"I had a number of parents expressing their concerns," Southwest Principal Trish Bransky said.
Bransky said police officers, central administration staff and the district's crisis-intervention team were at the school Tuesday.
"I think the students are grateful for the additional adults in the building today, and they've said so," Bransky said.
She said several parents conveyed gratitude for Bransky's decision Monday to send a letter home with students explaining that Lawrence police were investigating threatening graffiti found in a seventh-grade girls' restroom.
Yates welcomed Bransky's effort to inform parents, but yearned for more details.
"I appreciate that they let us know," she said. "At the same time, it says there's a problem, but does not tell what it is."
Bransky said full disclosure of the message could compromise the investigation.
Scott Morgan, a Lawrence school board member who has three children attending Sunflower School, which is adjacent to Southwest, said a verbatim account of the message also might encourage copycats.
He said Bransky handled the situation in a way that convinced him to send his own children to Sunflower.
"I want our staff on the alert every day for kids needing help," Morgan said. "I don't think any of the tragedies at other schools had a note on the seventh-grade girls' bathroom. Do you take them seriously? Absolutely. Do you shut down school every time? You just can't."
Anxiety about anonymous threats in schools is heightened after any highly publicized school shooting, Bransky said.
In March, two school shootings have made headlines.
Jason Hoffman, 18, is accused of shooting five people Thursday at Granite Hills High School near San Diego. Meanwhile, 15-year-old Andy Williams is accused of killing two classmates and wounding 13 people in a March 5 shooting spree at Santana High School in Santee, Calif.
Bransky said notification of parents, even if some information must be withheld, was a good approach.
"I'm a parent also, and I understand the atmosphere in American schools today is one of heightened concern about safety issues and security issues," she said.
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