Another threat made by a student, this time at Gainesville High School

Ozark County Sheriff Darrin Reed confirmed Monday that a threat was made by a juvenile at Gaines-ville High School last week, adding that “the juvenile authorities have taken it over.”

Reed was unable to provide any other details because the student is younger than 17. The call from the school is shown in this week’s Sheriff’s Report (see page 8) as happening at 12:58 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 3. The call log reported a “kid in office that says he is going to shoot up the school.”

The incident follows threats made since February at two other Ozark County high schools, Bakersfield and Dora.

Skyler Ledbetter, 17, a junior at Dora High School, is being held in the Ozark County Jail on a $25,000 cash-only bond after a class E felony of making a terrorist threat in the second degree was filed against him Sept. 25.

And Derek Beaver, 19, currently faces a class D felony of making a terroristic threat in the first-degree in connection with a February incident in which he allegedly told several fellow Bakersfield School students he was going to bring a gun in and “shoot up the school.” At the time of the alleged threat, Beavers was a senior at Bakersfield. He appeared before Circuit Judge Craig Carter most recently on Oct. 3; the case was continued until Dec. 5. 

Beaver was originally held on a $100,000 cash-only bond but was released with supervision on Feb. 27. An April 10 order allowed his bond to be amended allowing him to travel to Arkansas for counseling and medical care, and a May 15 condition was added, allowing the GPS monitoring bracelet to be removed and Beavers to be allowed to leave the state for employment. 

Reed told the Times, “We need these students to realize that we take every statement seriously. So they need to really think about that when they say things like this. They don’t realize just how much it can affect their life – their whole life, not just now.”