A Virginia mom was charged Friday after telling Page County school board members who’d been discussing mask policies that she would bring loaded guns to her children’s school.
“I will bring every single gun loaded and ready,” Amelia Ruffner King, 42, said Thursday in remarks at a Page County Public Schools Board meeting.
King was charged Friday with making an oral threat while on school property, Luray police said in a social media post.
She was released on a $5,000 bond, police said.
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The Page County school board convened Thursday to discuss COVID-19 mitigation strategies in the wake of Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s order effectively lifting the school mask mandate. Youngkin issued an executive order on his first day in office that says parents can choose whether their child must wear a mask in school.
Schools across the state have been discussing whether they’ll abide by Youngkin’s order when it takes effect Monday.
King told the school board her children won’t wear masks to school.
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She said: “My children will not come to school on Monday with a mask on. That’s not happening. And I will bring every single gun loaded and ready to….”
Then, an official interrupted and told King her time was up.
“I’ll see y’all on Monday,” King said before walking away from the podium.
The school board ultimately passed a motion to move forward with Youngkin's executive order and allow parents to choose whether their child wears a mask. Masking would still be required for staff, on buses and when students return from quarantine, according to school board documents.
Page County Public Schools said the district would have increased police presence at Luray area schools on Monday and “does not take these kind of statements lightly” in a statement released Friday.
“Not only do comments such as these go against everything we wish to model for our students, they go against the very nature of how we as a community should interact with each other,” the statement read.
The school said it’s been in touch with law enforcement.
