INDIAN LAND, S.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – A parent’s worst nightmare.

“We were made aware that a kid had threatened to murder her; even before saying that, he said that he was going to murder someone,” said Natalie Lesnefsky.

Natalie’s daughter came home nearly in tears, showing her and her husband texts they would never want to see.

The texts read:

“I’m gonna murder someone”

“Dang. Who? Me?”

“Not sure yet, maybe [redacted]”

The reason, he says, is that she broke his best friend’s heart.

They immediately alerted Indian Land Middle School administrators about the threats.

“As a joke or whatever it is. It’s something that can’t be joked about,” her father, Ben, said.

After a school investigation, they discovered the boy was only out of school for three days, and his schedule was changed to prevent interaction with their daughter.

They say his schedule was changed before their daughter’s, but they weren’t notified because of his privacy.

The parents insisted on knowing any safety precautions in place and were told that his lunch and class had changed. The school suggested their daughter have her class dismissal time changed, meaning she would walk the halls alone and early before everyone else.

“So, to us, it just wasn’t a correct response,” Ben explained. “I mean, that’s a terrifying thing like I can’t send my daughter back in knowing this boy could be there, and maybe he wants to follow up with his plan on Monday.”

District Safety Director Bryan Vaughn says the district doesn’t have certain rights to handle off-campus behavior; however, officials looked at the case from a district board policy standpoint.

Vaughn gave the following statement to Queen City News during a phone interview:

“The situation that I am aware of involved off-campus behavior, and that off-campus behavior was reported and investigated by law enforcement, and the school district looked at it from a district board policy standpoint.

For events that take place anytime, we do a threat protocol.

That involves looking at the parties involved, looking at the discipline record, and looking at any history of violence or mental illness.

We look at access to weapons, we look at the age, anything about it.

The district did its due diligence.

Policing in the community is for law enforcement.

The school district’s role is not to take the place of parents, and our role is not to take the place of law enforcement.

We can only police our school during the school day for events that take place during the school day, and in this case, we’re being asked to do some things that we can’t do under policy or law.”

The Lesnefkys say the district could’ve done more to protect their daughter.

“What I would have wanted to happen was that my daughter immediately would have been able to go to school and know that my daughter would not have to run into someone who said they were going to murder her,” Natalie said.

“It’s irrelevant if this is on campus or off campus because these are two students that go to the same school,” Ben said.

Now, they’re pushing to change the district policy regarding violent threats.

“If a threat like that is made, a threat on somebody’s life, that kid should be removed from school,” Ben said. “After he’s removed from school, he should see a trained professional and have a psychiatric evaluation. If the kids need help, make sure the kids get help.”

For Natalie, this is all too familiar but just as serious.

“Our children don’t want to imagine that the worst can happen. But we are their parents and have to fight to protect them,” Natalie explained. “My childhood best friend was murdered. We all thought he could never go that far… and he did. I saw the worst happen. And my fear is that with the district’s current response to violent threats- our students and teachers.. are set up to see the worst happen if we don’t do more.”

Not only are they pushing for change in the violent threat policies but with how the victims are treated as well.