All School Threats Must Be Taken Seriously

Prairie Grove school Superintendent Allen Williams at last week’s School Board meeting said all threats about harming students have to be taken seriously in today’s environment.

Such an example happened earlier in the day, Feb. 19, at Prairie Grove High School.

A teacher in one of the classrooms had written out the agenda for the week on a dry erase board. She left the agenda for Thursday blank because the school was having a career fair on Feb. 22.

The teacher left the room and during that time a student wrote “Everyone will die” in the space for Thursday.

Williams said the teacher came into the room, saw the words and reported them. The school and Prairie Grove Police Department investigated the incident and the student who wrote the words was quickly identified.

The police department cited the 14-year-old student with a felony, terroristic threatening.

Williams said the student, a freshman boy, immediately was apologetic and realized he “messed up big time.”

Through the investigation, it was determined the suspect meant the statement as a joke but there were still consequences, Williams said.

The boy was not expelled but is being disciplined by the school. Williams said he could not elaborate on the discipline because a student is involved.

“We have to take all these things seriously until we have a reason not to,” Williams said. “There are no jokes about this.”

The incident showed school officials that students are willing to step up and tell about things going on, Williams said.

“A lot of this is educating your kids, getting across the point they are the ones who can keep the school safe because they are the ones who hear things. If you hear something, you’ve got to tell the SRO (school resource officer) or a teacher so we can follow up,” Williams said.

Capt. Jeff O’Brien said police believe the incident was a joke done in poor judgment by a young student.

“He is now fully aware of the seriousness of his actions,” O’Brien wrote on the department’s Facebook page. “We also understand the heightened emotions and sense of urgency with these types of incidents, especially after the recent event in Florida.”