Student threat leads to cancellation of Tornillo-Fabens football game

Friday evening’s football game between Tornillo High School and Fabens High School has been canceled after the Tornillo football team received a threat, the district’s superintendent revealed via Twitter.

“The football game vs Fabens has been canceled after a threat was made to our football team,” said Rosy Vega-Barrio, the Tornillo Independent School District superintendent.

Vega-Barrio said the student who made the threat was investigated by the local authorities. “It was determined that there is no danger to our students,” the superintendent said.

The game was canceled as a precaution, Vega-Barrio said, adding the game counts as a forfeit for the Tornillo team. Vega-Barrio said the district immediately and directly contacted the parents of the student athletes and nearly half of the parents opted not to allow their children to play in Friday night’s game.

“We were not going to expose a skeleton team to play a game which could result in injuries,” Vega-Barrio told ABC-7 via Twitter.

Rod Portillo, the assistant superintendent at Tornillo ISD, told ABC-7 the student who made the threat on social media is not a Tornillo ISD student. Portillo could not confirm the student’s age, school or home district.

Portillo said the district first alerted parents about the threat via its social media accounts, including the tweet by superintendent Vega-Barrio. The district also sent an automated phone call, in English and Spanish, to all district parents.