When violent threats surfaced on social media last week, Roanoke City Public Schools shuttered schools for two days.

Federal authorities announced a criminal charge against a 35-year-old man, and police later said a 15-year-old student would face the same felony for a copycat threat to shoot up a school.

For some parents, the actions were a sign school administrators were cracking down — after controversy flared last month over how the district handled a Grandin Court Elementary School student who told children last fall he was going to kill people.