Student To Lancaster Co. School Board: I Was Not Helped

LANCASTER, S.C. – A renewed call for change in the Lancaster County School District. A group of parents and students showed up to the school board meeting Tuesday night to demand better protocols be put in place to protect students. It comes after Natalie Lesnefksy says her daughter, a student at Indian Land Middle School, was the target of a murder threat by a classmate last month. She says the student was suspended for 3 days and then came back. Lesnefsky says the school didn’t take the threat seriously. Lesnefsky says she has asked the district for a threat assessment policy for the last four weeks, but was recently told districts are not required to have a policy.

Her daughter, the student who was the target of that threat, says it’s unfair that she’s the one leaving the school. Sophia Lesnefsky says, “A victim should be helped, and I was not helped. I was told I could leave my classes early and walk the halls alone. I left all my friends because I don’t feel safe to go to my own school. My grades have dropped because I don’t know what I’m doing in school. Yet the aggressor is still at school, seeing his friends and learning.”

The group says they want the district to do more to stop threats before they happen. They also want metal detectors implemented across the district.