Macomb Today

The Richmond Community School District received an extra week of holiday vacation as they did not go back to school on Jan. 9 as originally planned.

Superintendent Brian Walmsley had sent parents a vague letter about the decision, but the school was shut down due to a death threat toward a recently hired administrator and his family; a recent CBS Detroit report said.

Since the incident, the unnamed school official has resigned from his office at the middle school, and a Jan. 9 school district Board of Education meeting did little to clear the air.

During the public comment section of the meeting, a current teacher at the district addressed the rumor that the death threat was a coverup for how many teachers were leaving the district.

The teacher explained that in her experience, the recent years' events and new legislature are causing a mass exodus of teachers. The district in fact had multiple teachers who left between the two semesters this year, several from both the middle and high schools.

Several parents also addressed the board, speaking about the recent traumatic events and school shutdown. They questioned what the board was doing to try to mitigate and solve the teacher exodus that kept some of their children without consistent teachers.

“It's certainly been a trying week,” said John Pepper, a parent. “It's been difficult watching everything going on between the threats that have occurred, the teachers leaving and trying to figure out what my wife and I need to do to take care of our two children and make sure that they have care when the unfortunate situation arises where we have to close the school. The information sharing from my end seemed to have been lackluster.”

Richmond schools closed again on Jan. 12 after the middle school principal was made aware of a threat from a student saying that they would be bringing a gun to the school, a ClickOnDetroit report said. Police are investigating the matter.