By Roxie Murphy, Assistant Editor
Maries County Schools are taking extra precautions today, Sept. 13, after a Thursday social media threat was deemed non-credible by the Maries County Sheriff’s Office.
During morning drop off, officers from Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP) Troop I, Gasconade County Sheriff’s Office, Belle Police Department (BPD) and Maries County R-2 Police Department (MCR2-PD) were present to secure both the Bland and Belle campuses.
According to a press release from Maries County R-2 Superintendent Dr. Lenice Basham around 9:15 a.m., the threat was reported to the MCR2-PD last night. It was first reported through the MSHP’s Courage to Report system.
The report was investigated by MSHP and the sheriff’s office, but no evidence was found and the threat was deemed non-credible.
“We will continue to monitor the safety of our students and staff,” Basham said. “We will continue to use the app notification as our primary source of communication with parents.”
Basham noted that parents should check the Maries R-2 app settings to make sure notifications are on.
“The district Lumen notification can take over an hour to send out emails,” she said. “The app sends an immediate text and notification. Please download the district app (Maries Co. R-2 ) and make sure your notifications are set in the app to receive texts.”
Basham acknowledged that several parents did not receive a notification from the app this morning regarding the threat.
“We apologize for anyone who did not get the notification through the app,” she said. “We will send out a test notification next week to make sure that everyone gets the notifications.”
Basham encouraged parents to reach out to her with concerns or questions via email at lbasham@mariesr2.org.
The social media trend started several weeks ago in schools across the Midwest.
“This is an ongoing issue for the last few weeks,” said Maries County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Scott John. “It started in Kansas a couple weeks ago and last week it was in Tennessee.”
John said the threat is being shared on the TikTok social media app.
“We’ve been aware of it and knew it was possible to happen in our area,” John said. “When we saw it last night, we were expecting it.”
Usually, credible school threats are against one particular school district, John said.
“These threats are listing eight to 10 schools in one go,” John said. “This last listing included Crawford, Phelps, and Maries County schools.”
MCR2-PD’s School Resource Officers Tanner Hinson and Shannon Fannon also worked in conjunction with other law enforcement to investigate the threat on the local level.
While the district is not in lockdown, they are taking the threat seriously and remain vigilant, according to district officials.
“We did have extra presence in the schools today,” John said. “The School Resource Officers in Belle were going to work with BPD to ensure schools are safe. The sheriff’s office worked with the Vienna Police Department to cover both Maries R-1 schools this morning.”
Both the sheriff’s office and Basham encouraged parents and students to speak up and report anything they see that may be deemed as a threat against the schools.
“If you see a social media threat or your student shares something they have heard or seen, please do a Courage 2 Report notification,” Basham said. “This notification goes to the Highway Patrol and the local law enforcement agencies.”
Vienna Police Chief Shannon Thompson said his department became aware of school threat hoaxes earlier this week when the Missouri State Highway Patrol notified local law enforcement agencies of a similar issue in Illinois. Early Friday morning, the Maries County Sheriff’s Office notified him of a reported threat and passed the message along to school administrators.
Vienna PD was following through with the normal school safety walks it does each day classes are in session at Maries R-1. He noted that the sheriff’s office had also sent deputies to the school for support.
Maries R-1 Superintendent Teresa Messersmith said the administration became aware Friday morning of a TikTok post naming the district and others in the area as possible targets for school shootings. Vienna Police contacted administrators who then let parents and staff know about the threat.
Local law enforcement did a sweep of the school before anyone entered for classes on Friday morning. Administrators walked around the campus throughout the day as part of extra precautions, which also included persistent security checks on exterior doors. Messersmith acknowledged that the threatening posts had been appearing across Missouri throughout the week.
Courage 2 Report is located on the MSHP website.
