Two SMES seventh-graders suspended after 'hit list' found

By Lynn Hotaling and Lisa Majors-Duff

The two seventh-grade girls responsible for the list have been removed from SMES for the remainder of the school year, Superintendent Mack McCary said Monday, and are now enrolled in the county's School of Alternatives.

School system and law enforcement officials were contacted independently May 7 by a concerned parent after other SMES students learned about the list during lunch and told their parents.

The two also face action from juvenile authorities, said Detective Jimmy Clawson of the Jackson County Sheriff's Department.

"I'm taking (the list) very seriously," Clawson said. "I think the entire community should be concerned."

The Sheriff's Department received a call from a parent of a child whose name was not on the list, Clawson said, and he talked to school officials the next day.

The detective confirmed there was a list with the names of five to 10 students. Clawson interviewed the two girls who made the list and their parents. The group had already prepared a statement, Clawson said, though he declined to release any specifics with regard to that statement.

Working in conjunction with the Sheriff's Department, school officials have learned that the list apparently grew out of teasing directed at the two girls who prepared it, McCary said. The list was created at school and then destroyed, and he doesn't know how many names were on it, the superintendent said.

"These kids are in a world of trouble with the juvenile court system," McCary said. "It was not at all a real plan the kids intended to carry out. The parents and kids are really devastated about what was done."

No evidence was found that indicated the students had any real plan for any action against the children named on the list, McCary said.

"Before (the 1999 massacre at Colorado's) Columbine (High School), these incidents would have been handled at home," McCary said. "We can't do that anymore."

In a letter he wrote to SMES parents, the superintendent commended the students who spoke up about the threats.

"The other students who overheard this conversation did the right thing - reported it to their parents who in turn reported it to law enforcement and the school," McCary wrote. "The best protection against threats to safety is the trust and communication among students, faculty, staff and parents. In this case, the system worked because students were willing to tell an adult what happened."

SMES Principal Tom Dowell sent a counselor to talk to the students in grades 5-8 about the incident, McCary's letter said. Points the counselor made included commending the students who came forward; underscoring that there are serious consequences for such actions; and alerting students to the fact that even what they perceive as harmless teasing is not harmless to the students who are the butt of such "negative attention."

"The youngsters directly involved in this situation are already suffering from the consequences of their bad judgment. They made a very bad mistake, but this was not a real plan or intent to harm others. We need to reassure our kids and fellow parents that school is still the safest place in the nation for our youngsters. Only our own worst fears and rumors, or our failure to trust and communicate with each other can make our schools appear unsafe," McCary wrote.

The 1999 Scotts Creek incident occurred on April 30, just 10 days after April 20, 1999, when two seniors at Columbine High in Littleton, Colo. went on a killing rampage that left more than a dozen students and a teacher dead. A Scotts Creek sixth-grader was accused of making a "hit list" and was suspended, though his lawyer claimed he had only acted as a "scribe" for other students who conceived the plan.

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