Bullied Students Draw Up ‘Hit List’ — Oakland Fifth-Graders Expelled, Face Murder-Conspiracy Charge

Two Fayette County fifth-graders were each charged Thursday with conspiracy to commit attempted first-degree murder after drafting an “assassination list” containing the names of 14 classmates.

The 10-year-old boys, who told police they were being bullied, were also charged with assault, harassment, disorderly conduct and unruly behavior.

The list was discovered Tuesday afternoon by a teacher at Oakland’s West Junior High. Under questioning by school administrators, the boys admitted to creating the list, Fayette County Schools Supt. Myles Wilson said.

The unidentified boys, who were released into their parents’ custody, were searched but no weapons were found.

The teacher found the list – written in pencil on a sheet of notebook paper – after it fell out of a notebook near where the two boys were sitting, said Oakland Police Department Capt. Michael Presson.

When questioned, the boys told school officials they’d each written down the names of people they didn’t like. The list contained the names of two girls and 12 boys, all fellow fifth- graders.

The names of the two boys charged with drafting the list were written in block letters on the sheet, Presson said.

However, questions remain about how and when local law enforcement agencies were notified of the potential threat.

The Oakland police were not made aware of the incident until a parent of one of the targeted children came in to ask about the investigation.

“That was when we were notified. We were not called by the school,” Presson said. “We immediately had three officers sent to the school.”

While Wilson said the school notified the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department, officials there say they found no record of such a call.

“If the call had come through dispatch we would have a complaint record of it and it would have been dispatched to one of the Oakland officers,” Fayette County Sheriff’s Department Insp. Ray Garcia said.

The boys, who were officially expelled for six months, were charged by the Oakland Police Department based on recommendations from Dist. Atty. Gen. Mike Dunavant.

Dunavant would not discuss details of the ongoing investigation, but did say the charges were appropriate based on the evidence.

“We take any threat to school children as a serious threat to public safety,” Dunavant said.

While agreeing that school and police officials must take any threat seriously, University of Memphis law professor Steve Mulroy was skeptical of the charges.

“It seems excessive both in light of their age and in light of the facts. If all we have is that there was a list, then that is not attempted murder. If they didn’t show it to anybody, it’s not harassment. I’m not even sure it’s disorderly conduct or unruly behavior,” said Mulroy, also a Shelby County commissioner. “This seems like a matter for the school system, not the criminal justice system.”

Such “hit lists” are not uncommon at schools around the country. In some cases, students have been suspended or expelled for creating or transmitting a list. In other cases, students have been arrested and charged with crimes. In September, a student at Hernando High was charged with simple assault after penning a threatening note.

Wilson said the Oakland school attempted to call parents and an official notification from principal Dolly Watson went out Wednesday.

“I would have liked for her to have sent the notice home that same day,” Wilson said.

But the “assassination list” was discovered late in the day and there was some delay on Watson’s part.

“We did meet the next morning with the principal and teacher and some parents and the note was sent home,” Wilson said.

By then the Police Department had called the parents of the 14 children.

“We let them know that we were involved and we were handling the situation,” Presson said. “Any time threats are made like this it’s serious. It doesn’t matter the age, it’s a serious situation.”

Parent Linda Barton never received a call from the school and was upset that it took a call from the Oakland police to learn that her son was on the list.

Barton has a neighbor who lived in Jonesboro in 1998 when two boys, one 11 and the other 13, killed five people in a school shooting. Among the dead was the daughter of her neighbor’s best friend.

So she appreciates the police taking the matter seriously .

“You can’t not nowadays,” she said. “Let’s teach these kids, even if they were joking, these boys have ruined their lives, at least for a while.”

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“We take any threat to school children as a serious threat to public safety.”

Mike Dunavant

District attorney general

Inside

Alert: Bomb threat at Southaven school.

Southaven

Threatening note found at DeSoto Central High

Southaven authorities searched DeSoto Central High School on Thursday night after an assistant principal found a threatening note in her door after school had ended for the day.

Details

Nothing was found, but police maintained a presence at the school throughout Thursday night, DeSoto County Schools spokesman Katherine Nelson said.

Normal school hours are expected to be observed today.

The note contained both a bomb threat as well as threats toward several students.

Nelson said the students named in the note and their parents were contacted.

Authorities also swept the middle school and elementary school on the DeSoto Central campus, as a precaution.

– Jody Callahan

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Originally published by Linda A. Moore and Jody Callahan lmoore@commercialappeal.com / callahan@commercialappeal.com .

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