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A bus from Van Buren Elementary arrived at a Caldwell subdivision shortly after 4:15 p.m., Tuesday, as it does every school day. Among those disembarking: Tashua Leyba’s 7-year-old daughter, Mariahmae.

“A sweet, loving, energetic child,” Tashua said.

But last week, Tashua says, her daughter got off the bus in tears.

“She says: ‘Mommy, a kid told me he was going to shoot me,'" Tashua said. "'He said he was going to bring a gun to school and shoot me.'"

Tashua and fellow concerned parent Debra Dowell admitted they hide little from their children and thus spoke frankly with their first-graders about last month’s school shooting in Connecticut.  Tashua thought Mariahmae's understanding of that event may have added to the trauma of last week's threat.

“She was extremely frightened,” Tashua said. “She told me on Thursday: “'Mommy, please don’t send me to school. I don’t want to go to school. I’m scared.’”

Tashua called Van Buren Elementary the day of the incident. She says the principal promised to sit down with the second-grader who made the threat, his parents and the school’s police officer.

But Tashua wanted more.

“I would have liked to have seen the kid kicked off the school bus for the rest of the year and suspended,” she said.

Tashua made her dissatisfaction clear to her daughter’s principal.

“She says: ‘What do you think? We’re not taking this seriously?’” Tashua said.

Idaho On Your Side contacted the district about the incident and in a statement it said it takes all threats very seriously, working closely with both parents and the police.

“Actions taken in these situations are based on the results of the investigation along with age-appropriate measures for students,” the statement said.

Measures that may not work, Tashua and Dowell say. They believe bullying on the bus happens every day.

“It seems to be every time my kids get off the school bus one or the other is upset,” Dowell said, “crying because a kid’s yelled at them, has threatened them.”