ST. LOUIS — The father of a Central Visual Performing Arts High School student said although the threat is gone, his daughter will battle trauma for the rest of her life.
Michael Bishop first found out his 16-year-old daughter was in danger when she texted the family saying she was scared of a threat in the building. Bishop immediately went from his south St. Louis home to the school.
"This isn't the first time I've made a run to school like this before," Bishop said. "On the way there I was just thinking in the back of my mind, 'This isn't real, this is just another false alarm.'"
The threat was real. He quickly found his daughter and took her home.
"If there wasn't a police officer standing there in front of me I probably would've gone in," Bishop said. "You aren't thinking, there's no critical thought happening. Just pure emotions and terror."
Days later, the two are still replaying the near-death experience in their heads.
"It's a rollercoaster, it comes in waves," Bishop said. "It's a lot of anger and frustration. Our children are paying the price, they will carry trauma for the rest of their life."
There are no classes for a few days, but Bishop is worried about his daughter's mental and emotional health when it's time to return to class.
"Even if she is emotionally healed from this, getting past the trauma, her entire school life from this day forward will be affected and changed," he said. "The stresses of taking a test now have the added stress of a potential event like this in the back of her mind. We've talked about online school or it's time to look at alternatives if anything else to have the focus be on education, not personal safety."
While the father of three worries about his family's well-being, he hopes leaders make changes to protect the public, especially students while at school.