HOUSTON – What is supposed to be a safe learning environment was more like a house of terror for one little girl, according to her mother.
The mother says her young daughter constantly cries at night because of PTSD sustained on the campus of International Leadership of Texas Charter School.
School officials say they’re taking the claims seriously but that mom disagrees.
Ava Williams is an 11-year-old fifth-grader at the school. She says she’s been threatened by a fellow fifth-grader for months.
“He said that he was going to kill me,” Ava said.
Ava’s mother, Tammy Williams, says she didn’t think much of it at first.
”I was just like, ‘OK, it’s kids. Sometimes they get mad and say stuff,’” Williams said.
But, Williams says the situation kept escalating even though she made staff members aware of the concerns.
”[Ava] was like ‘He made a gesture towards his neck like he was cutting my neck,’” Williams said.
The concerned mother says back on Oct. 29, the boy left the classroom, and another student who spotted his journal showed Ava a disturbing manifest scribbled inside.
Williams says Ava was able to capture a video of the note with her cell phone before the boy returned.
”[It read] ‘Murder Ava Williams by noon, if not by noon, by midnight. Stab her to death or something like that,’” Williams said. “Then it goes on to say how to kill her, like, murder plan.”
She says because she wasn’t getting a proper response from the school, she got Houston police involved.
On Thursday KPRC 2 spoke with school founder Eddie Conger.
”I’m not able to speak specifically to an individual case,” Conger said.
He says he can tell KPRC 2 that all claims are taken seriously and investigated within 96 hours, including Williams’.
”The date that I have is Dec. 10., is when the campus reported it to the police department,” Conger said.
Williams says the school administrators should’ve gotten law enforcement involved long before that.
The school says it completed its investigation but wouldn’t disclose what action, if any, was taken against the student.
HPD says it’s now investigating this case for possible terroristic threats.
Meanwhile, Williams has pulled her daughter Ava out of the school and regardless of how the investigation concludes, she says she will not be bringing her back.
