Mom Threatens To Blow Up School Over Missing Backpack
Upset over her son's missing backpack, an outraged Tennessee mother threatened to blow up her son's school.
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. This is how one Tennessee mother went about her business when she tried to get to the bottom of her son’s missing school backpack. Unfortunately, her approach went way too far.
Loretta Clayton found herself in handcuffs after placing a couple of phone calls to her son’s Getwell Elementary school in Memphis, Tennessee. The first phone call of the day was taken by a teaching assistant, who says Clayton called to ask about her son’s missing backpack. When the conversation didn’t go as Clayton had hoped, she got angry and then threatened to blow up the school. According to the court documents, the teaching assistant said on top of threatening to blow up the school, the Tennessee mother said, “some kids will be missing.”
Not satisfied with the teaching assistant, Clayton hung up and called right back. This time she got through to the school principal. The principal then warned the Tennessee mother, who this time identified herself using her maiden name, Loretta Treadwell, not to call the school making bomb threats. The principal states that Clayton (Treadwell) said she never threatened to blow up the school but only stated that some children would end up missing.
The two calls the Tennessee mother made to the school were not the only ones she had placed. Earlier in the week, says the school’s principal, Clayton had called to inquire about her son’s missing backpack. Obviously, nothing had been done about it.
Local police were able to verify Clayton’s phone number from the phone call records. Frustration is one thing but threatening to blow up a school and cause children to go missing is a whole different ball game. The Tennessee mother was arrested and charged with the threat of mass violence on school property or at a school-related activity. This charge is considered a misdemeanor.
The Tennessee mother isn’t the only mom who has taken to making bomb threats toward schools. A Brevard County, Florida mom has been arrested and charged with making bomb threats to Cocoa High School. Anaya Metoya Smith was booked at the Brevard County jail because of a voicemail she left the school threatening to blow up the school. Her reasoning? The size of the lunch portions her son was getting from the school cafeteria.
According to court documents, Smith’s son was arguing with a cafeteria worker because he wanted extra food. When it was not provided to him, he took his complaints home to his mother. In turn, Smith followed the Tennessee mother’s lead and made a couple of calls to the school threatening to blow it up. Smith’s voicemail threat was just one of four the high school received from February to March. After police investigated, they found that two of the phone calls came from outside the state which prompted the FBI to step in to investigate.
One officer involved identified Smith’s voice on the voicemail stating he has had a few encounters with the unhappy mother. Smith’s charges are different from what the Tennessee mother faces. Because of her threatening call, Smith is looking at a felony charge of making a false report to bomb the school, which is state property. She also faces a misdemeanor charge of interfering with school administrative functions.
