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AISD does not notify bus drivers about former students, school district says

A former student has been arrested and charged with terroristic threat after police said he made threats while on a school bus after arriving at Akins High School Thursday morning.
Ariel Alexander Ramirez-Navarro

Austin Independent School District said the district does not have a system in place to notify bus drivers when a regular student passenger withdraws or is otherwise unenrolled from school, and should no longer be allowed to board their bus. Thursday, a former student boarded a school bus, made a threat toward Akins High School, and made additional threats to the school while on campus.

A lockdown was ordered at the school Thursday at 9:52 a.m. after Ariel Alexander Ramirez-Navarro allegedly made the threats. Ramirez-Navarro was found at Southpark Meadows at 10:25 a.m., where he was arrested and charged with terroristic threat, a third-degree felony, police said. As of Friday, Ramirez-Navarro is not in custody.

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Former student arrested after threatening to ‘shoot and blow up’ Akins H.S., officials say

AISD told KVUE on Friday that Ramirez-Navarro boarded the bus that he usually got on in order to attend school. Police confirmed that Ramirez-Navarro's enrollment status changed two weeks ago because of his lack of attendance. AISD also told KVUE they do not have a system that notifies bus drivers about students who should no longer board their buses.

"Every bus has an eligible bus rider list and drivers are required to do a roll call check twice each year," the school district told KVUE.

Ashley Hogans, a senior at Akins High School, told KVUE she always takes the bus to school. She said bus drivers don't typically let just any student on their bus.

"The bus driver, if they didn't recognize the student, he would stop them at like the door and be like, 'Hey, I don't recognize you. Do you have a note to ride this bus,'" she said. "And if they didn't, he was like, 'You can't ride the bus.'"

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