A 70-year-old physical education teacher at a charter school in Union Parish, Louisiana, has been arrested two weeks after he allegedly threatened to shoot and kill his third-grade students, according to deputies in the northern Louisiana parish.
Robert Mitcham, of Ruston, was taken into custody Sept. 17 after a parent came forward with allegations that Mitcham told his class he would bring bullets and a gun to Downsville Community Charter School and that “some of the students would not survive.”
According to the witness, students in the class became frightened by Mitcham’s threats and, given the current climate of school shootings, took him at his word.
Investigators with the Union Parish Sheriff’s Office said Mitcham allegedly told students that there were “too many of y’all to get rid of,” and that he “only had six bullets in his gun.”
Witnesses told investigators that after an older student reported the incident to another teacher, Mitcham apologized to the class.
Deputies said Mitcham explained that the students were being rowdy, and he felt overwhelmed, adding that he was only trying to get the children to settle down and insisted he was not threatening them.
A day after Mitcham’s arrest, the school district’s Board of Directors held a meeting where upset parents shared their concerns about the incident, with many expressing anger over the lack of communication by school administrators.
Many parents said they were shocked to find out that Mitcham had made the threats two weeks before his arrest and was allowed to keep teaching in the interim. He has since been suspended, though it’s not clear if he was still drawing a salary.
“We’re just hoping to find out why it took them two weeks to get him off of campus. Why our kids had to come and be in a class with him for two more weeks after he had stated this to multiple students on multiple occasions, and we would like to know why,” said Kimberly Chappell, one of the concerned parents who spoke with station KNOE 8.
Chappell and other parents accused the school of not communicating with the community, which learned details of the case through news reports.
When asked to explain this, Tony Cain, the executive director of Downsville Community Charter School, described the incident as a personnel matter involving legal issues, and he remained firm that his office was not legally permitted to comment publicly on the situation.
“We do want to make it clear that the allegations by the parent reporting to the Union Parish Sheriff’s Office and those in social media are NOT consistent with the first-hand accounts provided to school staff from the students who actually witnessed the incident,” Cain said, according to the station. “We feel confident that the students were truthful and accurate with their accounting of the incident,” he said.
However, parents remained adamant that their most basic expectation is for the school to keep them informed about their children’s safety.
After the meeting, Downsville Mayor Reggie Skains said he was disappointed in the school’s decision to keep parents in the dark about the alleged threats, suggesting that the school had become disconnected from the community.
“I grew up here, went to school here, spent a lotta years here launching the school,” Skains said. “And the community’s not involved in the school anymore. Like they said, we don’t know anything about what’s going on up here.”
Mitcham was booked into the Union Parish Detention Center on a single count of terrorizing. His bond was set at $15,000.
A judge from the Third District Court imposed a bond condition preventing Mitcham from returning to the campus while the case is still pending.
Sheriff Dusty Gates urged parents, students, and teachers to remember, “If you see something, say something.”
“DCCS has two school resource officers on campus every day,” the sheriff’s office stated in a Facebook post. “Please utilize these officers to discuss any concerns, especially those of planned acts of violence. Additionally, anonymous tips can be submitted online via the Safe Schools Louisiana app or website, the UPSO app, or through Crime Stoppers of Union Parish.”
