(ABC 6 News) – Albert Lea parents are speaking out after recent threats of violence have uncovered a pattern of similar incidents over the past two years.

At Lakeview Elementary School, recent death threats against students have sparked a broader conversation in the community about a lack of communication from school leaders and lack consequences for students’ actions.

One such threat was made against Marissa and Drew Chellsen’s son.

“I’m gonna bring a gun to school tomorrow, and I’m going to kill you,” Drew says was the threat another student made against his 3rd grade son on March 4. “Nobody’s ever said those things to me and I’m 34 years old. He’s nine years old.”

He and Marissa say the incident happened at lunchtime. They weren’t notified until the end of the school day — three hours later.

“Our initial response was a one minute phone call, brush it under the rug and move on, and as parents, we can’t tolerate that,” said Marissa.

“What really angered us about the time lapse in between there is because we needed, we would’ve liked that time to talk to our son, ‘hey are you doing okay after this?’” said Drew.

The Chellsens had a meeting with Lakeview’s principal that day but say the only reason they were able to meet in person was because they were already at the school for conferences. They weren’t assured during their meeting with the principal that their son’s safety would be taken seriously.

“Saying they’re gonna bring a gun to school, and the dean was like but we think they’re just angry,” said Melissa.

The principal’s solution was to check the backpack of the student who made the threat and call home to ask if there were any weapons in the house. Drew and Marissa didn’t feel that was enough.

Then, just over a week later on March 13, almost the same exact thing happened to Lydia Sorenson’s child.

In a statement to ABC 6 News, Sorenson said “My son was threatened by another another student that she was going to ‘hunt him down and kill him.'”

She says she faced similar struggles of the school’s principal not being communicative beyond initially notifying her of the incident, and did not respond to multiple follow-up calls and emails.

Sorenson, at a loss over the school’s lack of communication and discipline, created an anonymous survey for other parents in the district to share their own experiences.

“Blasting someone on Facebook is not my MO, but his blatant disregard to that very serious threat and his disregard to other emails sent left me no option but to get his attention some other way,” said Sorensen.

Out of 150 responses, Sorensen says only three were positive. Meanwhile dozens of others shared stories of destruction of property, disruptive behavior, and students and teachers fearing for their safety.

“I was hoping that the responses to that post would be ‘I can’t relate’ or ‘behaviors seem well-managed’ but unfortunately, the comments and survey submissions received, paint a very different picture,” said Sorensen.

In response to requests for an interview on the situation, Lakeview’s principal declined to comment, directing any questions on the matter to Interim Superintendent David Krenz.

Sorensen, as well as Marissa and Drew Chellsen, all praised Krenz handling of the situation and quick reply to their messages.

“I feel very optimistic about the feedback I’ve had from the Superintendent and Board Members.  They are taking this very seriously and have already started investigating the current curriculum we are using to address behaviors.  I am so appreciative for their support but there also needs to be change on a state level,” said Sorensen.

Krenz wants parents to know, as a father himself, he understands their concerns when something like this happens, and the district is not ignoring these threats or other behavioral issues.

“We’ve gotta make sure that no matter what’s going on, that the students’ safety is critical,” said Krenz.

Drew and Marissa want there to be more clear guidelines in the schools to handle disciplinary issues, so students, staff and administration all know exactly what will happen if a student threatens someone else. They want to see the school have a detailed plan for how to react in these situations in the immediate seconds, minutes, hours and beyond.

Krenz says right now, these situations are handled on a case-by-case basis, but he’s working with principals in every school to improve communication and guidelines for discipline.

“We have to build that trust that the families know that we’re doing the things that we need to do,” said Krenz.