You're a daycare teacher. A 4-yo kid gets mad at the teacher and says, "I'm going to get a gun and come back and shoot you!" How would you react?

At the exact moment calm as possible
I suppose someone in higher authority should be notified?
I would take it seriously.
It is a sad world, now.
I suppose report to the school and the parents?

Thanks for all the responses. The administrators were informed immediately who then contacted the parents. The father arrived and the mother was conference called as they discussed the issue. He has been suspended for the rest of the week. We can only guess as to why he reacted in such a way, but in over 15 years as a daycare teacher, this is the first time she has received this "threat."

FOUR years old and the parents have no control. Obviously they don't monitor what the child watches on television.

Little kids can't unsee, and they can't unhear, and they need to be trained from age 3 on in proper values BY THEIR PARENTS. If that doesn't happen, the parents will be crying in a dozen years, looking at 23 dead kids and their dead daughter, saying, SHE SEEMED LIKE A QUIET, NORMAL CHILD!

My cousin called me today and was telling me her son will be quitting as a teacher because of the "No Child Left Behind" program. The program has accepted that parents are NOT parenting, and they have dumped that role in the lap of the public schools, and the public schools then dump that responsibility in the laps of individual teachers, who are quitting in droves.

The upshot is that it has made teaching at the elementary level impossible. The kids behave horribly, and when the teachers call the parents, the parents come in and blame the teacher and yell and scream and behave worse than the kids.

I hope your wife can find something more rewarding to do with her life.

Something should be said to the parents, and the child should be removed from daycare!!

Whoa. Time to have a parent/teacher conference.

Omg ! I would definitely have a talk with the principal and the kid’s parents. Nowadays, doing so would [b]not[/b] be overreacting.

Forget the kid in the pick up van the next morning.

Parents, discuss, if they dont seem to care, he needs to be suspended then reported to local authorities

"Do it" as I look them in the eyes and show them all the evil behind them

Try to remain calm and objective.
It could be because she heard something in a TV show or something, could be dealing with violent parents, or some other reason.
Talk to their parents, a follow up to know the posible causes that made her become like that. Some kids are very agresive, defiant, and need help to control their anger and frustration . Their parents need help to raise them too.

Seems to me the only rational reaction is to take it seriously.

Talk to the buildings head.I would take it seriously.

She should report the incident and address it with the parents. As unlikely as it is a 4 year old would do that, it has happened and any threat should be taken seriously. I know a principal who has confiscated a collection of knives from various children at an elementary school.

I would tell his parents, the daycare administrators immediately. I would request permission to discuss this behavior with the students in an age appropriate way.Guns, harming others. I would definitely want the administration to find out if he has any access to a gun.

If the school has a counselor I might from demand to admin that he have meetings with one to find out if he has anger or abuse in his background if I was to continue teaching him.

Time out and some kiddie meditations about violence and an inquest as to what is wrong in his family...this can be tweaked if the inquiry is intelligent. the kid is still young enough to be helped.

Whatever protocols that are in place for just this reason. Every school and day care have specific protocols for many scenarios.

Ooooh.....dreadful.
I know of it happening in the school I worked at.
The parents were informed and the child spoken to....but thats it....

Follow day care regulations every day care has them.

If you're American the I'd be definitely concerned

I'd poison his nap blanket

Wow:( scary

Woah that is horrible. 😞