More charges for Mason mom who allegedly threatened elementary student

Leanne Fischer

Leanne Fischer

UPDATE, Oct. 3: A Mason Schools parent faces an additional charge after she allegedly threatened a student on social media.

Leanne Fischer is now also charged with inducing panic after her court appearance Monday.

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Fischer was originally charged with menacing after police said she threatened a student at Western Row Elementary via a video posted on Instagram.

The mother of the child Fischer named in the video was in court Oct. 1 for Fischer's arraignment but declined to comment afterwards.

Fischer is to have no contact with the victim and his family and she must stay off of social media while the case is pending.

FIRST REPORT, Oct. 1:

A Mason elementary student’s mother is facing charges after she allegedly threatened physical violence against another student.

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The Mason City Schools parent, Leanne Fischer, is charged with menacing in Warren County. The threat was made against a student at Western Row Elementary via a video posted on social media, police said.

Fischer, in an interview with our news partner WCPO, said that her son is being bullied at Western Row Elementary School. She said a couple of days ago, she learned that her son took her Taser to school.

"I was hurt, my heart hurt," Fischer said. "As a parent sometimes we do things out of anger when our kids are hurt. My kid has been hurt."

She said her son was punched in the stomach and that he feels hopeless, and that rage made her record a threatening message on Instagram toward the other student.

"I said something along the lines of 'I was going to beat the kid up,'" Fischer said. "I did say that and I'm not condoning my actions at all, but it was said in anger. I would never in my life hurt a kid."

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It was a middle school student who saw Fischer's video and reported it to her school counselor.

"Immediately our middle school administration connected with our Western Row administration began investigating and pulled in the city of Mason's Campus Safety Team," Tracey Carson, a spokeswoman for Mason Schools, said. "They recognized that there was what they viewed as a significant disturbing threat and the police were able to arrest the parent who was making the threat."

Fischer says her son was suspended for bringing the TASER to school

She is scheduled to be arraigned on one count of menacing on Oct. 1.

CLOSER LOOK: Once banned, now embraced: High schools teaching with social media

On Oct. 8, Mason City Schools Superintendent Jonathan Cooper will host a public meeting for families about social media use, according to the district, which said in a statement it has seen “increased anxiety and depression in our tweens and teens who cannot distinguish where “Insta-life” ends, and reality begins.”

“As a school district, we are increasingly concerned about the way that social media has altered our connections and perceptions. We’ve noticed a lack of civility that doesn’t reflect how we behave face-to-face when we see each other in the grocery store, at the park, or at school. Additionally, some students and families are struggling with the pressure of keeping up with the virtual Jones’s — a carefully curated virtual family that may not actually reflect the Jones’s in real-life,” according to the statement from the district.

More information about the community conversation can be found here.

This article contains reporting by our media partner WCPO.

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