A teacher took students from a Maryland elementary school through a wooded area and then to a café, where she falsely reported multiple stabbings Thursday afternoon, according to authorities.
The teacher escorted 27 students from Green Valley Elementary School in Monrovia, Maryland, leading them almost a mile through the woods to The Buzz Café. There, she asked the staff to call police and report multiple stabbings at the school shortly before 12:30 p.m., the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office said. Initially, café staff spoke to the dispatcher, and then the teacher herself did.
Green Valley Elementary School went into lockdown, but as deputies were responding, they called the school and found out that there were no stabbings — but that 27 5th graders and a teacher were missing.
"How is it possible to get 27 kids out of the school?" parent Nancy Megever asked. "And in the woods, like one mile."
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Deputies went to both the café and the school, which was locked down, according to the sheriff's office. Deputies determined no one was stabbed at the school, the sheriff said.
The students told investigators that the teacher had told them to remove any brightly colored clothing. Authorities said the teacher was distraught.
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“The teacher had taken off any bright clothing that she had had, and she also instructed her students to do the same,” said Todd Wivell of the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office. “So, when the teacher got there, when the staff member got there, that’s what the staff at The Buzz Café saw.”
All students were OK, authorities said. They were taken by bus back to the school about an hour later. The school returned to normal status Thursday, and dismissal took place as usual.
Deputies took the teacher to a hospital for an evaluation. The Frederick County Sheriff's Office said it can't discuss medical matters and will not share the current status of the teacher.
However, authorities wanted to be clear that she was not criminally arrested. No charges have been filed at this time.
The sheriff's office said while the teacher was inside the school with the students, she tried to call the front office to get permission to take them outside for class. She didn't get a reply and felt the school was "eerily quiet," authorities said.
"As part of her teaching in emergency management procedures and following the avoid, deny, defend tactics, she leads the children through the woods and 7/10 of a mile up the road to The Buzz café," the sheriff's office said. As they were walking through the woods, she had the students remove any brightly colored clothing and accessories and removed her own brightly colored shirt to avoid detection, the sheriff's office said.
Nancy Megever has a stepdaughter who attends Frederick County Public Schools. She said, after hearing about what happened, she would not feel comfortable dropping her off Friday. But she said she felt bad for the teacher and that no one at the school had noticed she wasn't doing well.
"They have to check on mental health more as much for the students, but teachers as well," she said in Spanish.
A parent who has two children at Green Valley Elementary School said Friday morning that he hadn't received any information from the school about what happened.
On Friday afternoon, authorities said sheriff's deputies, FCPS administration and Green Valley Elementary School staff held a meeting with the families of all 27 students involved in the incident. They said they were working to provide additional mental health staff at the school Friday and next week to work with any child or staff member who needed help.
