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Tag Archives: Westside Middle School

Gun-toting students prepare to face judge

Posted on February 28, 2020 by Crystal Carter Harrell

By Crystal Carter Harrell
Delta Digital News Service

JONESBORO – Two 17-year-old male students at Westside High School exchanged a loaded .22 revolver at school on Jan. 23 and are now said to be expelled.

School Supt. Scott Gauntt said the school district has strict procedures about what can be done and when it can be done. Those procedures have not yet been met.

“We have not been able to hold a hearing. We can’t hold a hearing without them having the ability to come and stand up for themselves,” Gauntt said.

Dakota Hays gave a gun to fellow schoolmate Patrick Houston in the boys’ bathroom. Houston allegedly wanted to kill a 16-year-old co-worker who also attended the school according to a previous KAIT8 report.

Craighead County Division 4 Second Judicial Circuit Judge Cindy Thyer found probable cause to charge them both with conspiracy to commit capital murder and possession of a firearm on school property. Judge Thyer set bond at $250,000 each and ordered them on house arrest should they make bond.

Hays and Houston still remain in jail and have not made bond.

Ryan Tolbert, Westside Schools security director, began employment in the school district four years after the 1998 Westside Middle School shooting. Tolbert said the situation started and began within seven minutes.

“In this particular situation, no students were injured. Everyone was safe. It happened quick. It ended quickly,” Tolbert said. “It’s stressful. You have to make the best decision possible in a short period of time.”

District Treasurer Bill Breeden said the two students will no longer be part of the school district.

The students appear in court on Feb. 28.

6th Annual Ride Benefits Memorial Gardens

Posted on March 19, 2018 by madisongomez

by Madison Gomez
Delta Digital News Service

The sixth annual Westside Memorial Garden Ride and Benefit was held Saturday, March 17 at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro. The benefit raises money for the maintenance and upkeep of the memorial garden built in rememberance of the shooting that took place on the grounds in 1998.

A motorcycle rests on a sidewalk at Westside Middle School before the benefit.

Robert ‘Teardrop’ Webster, directs crew setting up for the Westside Memorial Garden Benefit and Ride in Jonesboro.

A rider signs his name to drive in the Westside Memorial Garden Ride and Benefit.

Robert ‘Teardrop’ Webster and Dean McGlothin hang the quilt to be raffled off. Linda Auspaugh makes quilts each year for the benefit.

Two participants in the ride prepare to embrace before the ride at the Westside Memorial Garden Ride and Benefit.

Participants wore white pin ribbons at the Westside Memorial Garden Ride and Benefit in remembrance of the 1998 shooting.

Krystal Scott and Amanda Nelson embrace while looking at the sundial in the memorial garden. Scott, present at the school on the day of the shooting, remembered the day: “The fire alarms went off. We proceeded out the doors and it sounded like firecrackers going off until we started seeing people go down and then it was run for your life,” Scott said.

White bows hang from the back of motorcycles at the Westside Memorial Garden Ride and Benefit. Five bows hang for the five victims who lost their lives and one bow hangs for the 10 people injured.

Several riders look at a motorcycle as another makes a repair at the Westside Memorial Garden Ride and Benefit.

A group huddles for a prayer at the Westside Memorial Garden Ride and Benefit.

A rider waves to a crowd as the benefit ride begins. The raises money for maintenance of the Memorial Garden at Westside Middle School.

Bystanders watch the Westside Memorial Garden Ride and Benefit ride.

Riders for the the Westside Memorial Garden Ride and Benefit.

Westside Survivors Gather Journals

Posted on March 16, 2018 by Seth Cleveland

Flowers on marker at Westside Middle School Memorial Garden

by Seth Cleveland
Delta Digital News Service

JONESBORO — For one group of people in Jonesboro, the past 20 years remains a time of healing from wounds that never seem to close.

Valerie Grass (photo by Seth Cleveland)

By all accounts, March 24, 1998 began as a pretty average day. The students of Westside Middle School started fifth period. The teachers began the lesson. Then two middle-school students pulled the fire alarm, went up on a hill and began shooting, killing four students and a teacher, and wounding 10 more.

“No time for questions. It was just run and take cover,” said Valerie Grass, a student at Westside at the time of the shooting.

Brandy Myatt said she remembers hearing, “Don’t walk, run!” on that day.

“We just took off helter-skelter, and right as soon as we got to the gym, I noticed my friend holding her arm,” she said.

Brandy Myatt (photo by Seth Cleveland)

Myatt started piecing together what happened. And, she said, things began to change. From there began a long and arduous healing process.

That’s the truth for many people who have experienced similar events. Those who have experienced these atrocities must learn to move on.

The Westside survivors want to aid in the healing process of other survivors.

“We usually try to offer something to say, ‘You’re not alone in this,'” Myatt said.

After every school shooting since 1998, the Westside survivors have gotten together and figured out a way to help. After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, the Westside survivors sent the children stuffed animals like they received. In other cases, the Westside survivors have gone to school to talk to the students.

For many of the Westside shooting survivors, Parkland felt different. The similarities between the shootings, the approaching 20-year anniversary and the helplessness — it all opened the wounds of the past.

“This most recent shooting has just flooded so many memories back,” Grass said.

Others in the group agreed.

“As soon as we heard about Parkland, we all got on our Facebook group … and the first thing that I asked is ‘What are we going to do?'” Myatt said.

Myatt’s journal (click photo to enlarge)

Their idea stemmed from something the survivors did after the shooting.

Ferncliff, a camp in Little Rock, offered the survivors a getaway from the media coverage the summer after the shooting. The survivors learned journaling as a way to cope.

“From that came a lot of healing,” Grass said. “When we got there they had a starter backpack with a flashlight, a journal and a teddy bear.”

Jennifer Roshto, a Westside survivor, appreciated the journals.

Jennifer Roshto (photo by Seth Cleveland)

“It gave me a place to say all these things and put all these things down, without having somebody tell me, ‘Well, you need to get over it,'” she said.

The Westside survivors want to gather 3,400 journals to send to Parkland survivors so that every high school student can have one.

“We’ve had several donations already, but I still feel that we’re very shy of what we need,” Roshto said.

Northeast Arkansas residents can donate until April 1 at several Journal Donation Locations around Jonesboro.

They also offer up their advice. “Take it day by day,” Myatt said.

Journal Donation Locations
Target	Monday – Friday, 8 a.m.- 4 p.m.	Brandy Myatt
VA Clinic	Monday – Friday, 8 a.m.- 4:30 p.m.	Lindsay Kifer
Hytrol	Monday – Friday, 8 a.m.- 4 p.m.	Jessica Odom
Westside Middle School
Pocahontas Schools
Highland Schools
Bono City Hall
Lost Pizza Company

Special Topic

Westside: 20 years later

Posted on March 16, 2018 by deltadnews

Students from the Spring 2018 Advanced Reporting and Reporting for Electronic Media courses investigated the 20th anniversary of the Westside Middle School shootings and the ramifications of Arkansas’ soon-to-be-implemented college campus concealed-carry law.

Miranda Reynolds details remembrances from the Westside School Board, a student and a former A-State faculty member.
Seth Cleveland examines how Westside survivors continue to help other victims of school shootings.
Katie Woodall examines how the Westside shootings changed active-shooter procedures.
Tucker Crain details Arkansas’ Congressional leaders’ stances on gun violence and school safety.
Christopher Lee examines contention at Arkansas State over the new campus concealed-carry law.
DDNS Editor-in-Chief Kimberely Blackburn examines regional reactions to the campus concealed-carry law.

Ammar Taqi of the Advanced Photography class provided featured pictures of the Westside Middle School Memorial Garden. View the full pictures below.

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Lawmakers Take Stances on Shooting

Posted on March 16, 2018 by Tucker Crain

Sculpted sundial by Curtis Steele at Westside Middle School Memorial Garden

by Tucker Crain
Delta Digital News Service

JONESBORO – Arkansas lawmakers weighed in on the 20th anniversary of the Westside Middle School shooting, occurring March 24.

Gun violence and school safety continue to be prominent issues across the nation, particularly in light of the recent school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Similar tragedy struck Arkansas in 1998 with the shooting at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro.

Crawford

U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford represents Arkansas’ 1st Congressional District, which contains Jonesboro. In an interview with KASU News Director Johnathan Reaves, Crawford said a school-safety commission was established almost immediately after the tragedy in Parkland, and the commission resembled the style of the commission formed after 9/11.

Crawford said he took the time recently to meet with people involved with the tragedy at Westside to find solutions that do not require congressional action.

“What we do know is we’re not going to wait around for that legislation to appear,” Crawford said.

Crawford’s office did not respond to requests for comment regarding further legislative solutions the congressman may be working on in terms of gun violence and school safety.

Womack

Meanwhile, the 3rd Congressional District’s U.S. Rep. Steve Womack’s press secretary Heather Neilson said Womack is not looking to add new laws regarding gun safety.

“Rather than searching for new, more stringent ways to go against Second Amendment rights, (Womack) wants us to enforce our current laws more forcefully,” Neilson said.

Neilson said tragedy causes debate over the Second Amendment, but Womack does not believe new restrictions hold the answer.

Boozman

U.S. Sen. John Boozman also participated in an interview with Reaves. Boozman said the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 created issues for law enforcement.

Boozman said HIPPA laws prevent mental health professionals from reporting people who hint of a desire to commit a violent act to law enforcement.

“I think that’s something that we need to look at, and those are the kind of things that Congress will be looking at,” Boozman said. “Those are the kinds of things that the states can be looking at.”

Boozman’s office did not respond to requests for comment regarding any legislative actions the congressman may be taking regarding gun violence and school safety.

Cotton

The office of Arkansas’ other U.S. Senator, Tom Cotton, said although Cotton has made no comments regarding gun violence and school safety, any future statements and announcements will be posted to his website and sent to email subscribers.

The office of U.S. Rep. French Hill, who represents the 2nd Congressional District, did not respond to requests for comments. Similarly, the office of the 4th Congressional District’s U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman declined to comment when asked for comments regarding gun violence and school safety.

Featured photo by Miranda Reynolds

Special Topic

Remembering the Westside Middle School Tragedy

Posted on March 16, 2018 by Miranda Reynolds

by Miranda Reynolds
Delta Digital News Service

JONESBORO – School shootings continue to bombard America; for some schools, it serves as a reminder of the past.

Westside Middle School experienced a school shooting March 24, 1998. This month marks the 20-year anniversary of the tragedy that killed five people.

Natalie Brooks, 11
Paige Herring, 12
Stephanie Johnson, 12
Brittheny Varner, 11
Shannon Williams Wright

The anniversary of the shooting remained in the Westside Consolidated School Board members’ thoughts in the February meeting. Vice President Darren Harpole addressed the board and audience with information regarding the Florida school shooting.

“We are working on this as a district. Our security team, we looked over our procedures. We talked about ways we can tighten stuff up so that we don’t leave anything out there,” Harpole said.

In further discussion of the topic, Harpole said the school strives to keep students safe.

Brandy Myatt, a student of Westside Middle School at the time of the shooting, remembers the day vividly.

She said talking her experiences through with friends and family proved to be difficult.

“With them not being there that day, they honestly don’t understand fully what we were going through,” Myatt said.

Myatt did not begin coping with the experience until the following summer.

Myatt does not support guns in school as a protection of students.

She said many ways exist to help those trying to coping.

“Take their time. Don’t rush the healing process, honestly. That’s where the ‘take their time’ comes in. Talk it out, if they can. If they can’t talk to their parents, then talk to their peers. If they can’t talk to their peers, then seek help. Get help any way that they can,” Myatt said.

Listen to more of Myatt’s interview with Miranda A Reynolds

Richard Carvell, retired department chair of Arkansas State University’s Radio and TV Department, worked from 1971 to 2008 in various positions. Carvell and his students stayed very hands on during the Westside Middle School shooting media coverage.

One of the more vivid memories Carvell explained dealt with the aftermath of the shooting.

As school shootings continue to occur, Carvell said he reacts in three ways.

“Of course I’m saddened at the loss of life and then I get angry. I think to myself and sometimes I say out loud, ‘Why aren’t we doing something to help the people who are going off the deep end and take out their frustration?’ We just don’t know enough to help those with mental problems,” Carvell said.

Listen to more of Carvell’s interview with Miranda Reynolds.

The Westside Middle School keeps those lives lost in a Memorial Garden located on campus.

Active Shooter Procedures Changed After Westside

Posted on March 14, 2018 by katieholder

Westside from Katie Woodall

by Katie Woodall
Delta Digital News Service

JONESBORO – Twenty years have passed since the shooting that changed the lives of so many in Northeast Arkansas.

On March 24, 1988, two middle school students shot and killed four classmates and one teacher. It still haunts the people of Jonesboro. Westside Superintendent Scott Gaunt said the threat of violence serves as a worry for superintendents everywhere.

“Any superintendent will tell you that’s a nightmare that all of us have. Bad people have bad intentions; they’re going to do bad things,” Gaunt said. You know, we can only hope that we can put protocols in place that can stop it.”

One thing that can be taken from tragedies like Westside’s involves how law enforcement handles active-shooter situations. Sgt. Lyle Waterworth, Jonesboro Police Department’s community outreach and recruiting coordinator, said 20 years ago police officials waited for special forces, a policy that changed after the Columbine school shooting. The Columbine shooting happened a year after the Westside shooting, and also involved two minors shooting and killing their classmates and one teacher.

In the last 20 years, officials placed active-threat procedures in place in schools all over the nation. Many schools put in place precautions like student resource officers and civilian response courses.

“It’s important for people to know that they can defend themselves,” Waterworth said.

Whether it’s a course like the one taught to incoming freshman at Arkansas State University or the training Jonesboro Police go through with local schools, current training procedures include the same basic concepts.

“Different programs use different names, but they all kind of break down to this: run, hide or fight,” said Bill Smith, A-State’s associate vice chancellor for marketing and communications.

Something Smith said improved over last 20 years include the willingness to create training programs and talk openly about what people need to do in active-shooter situations.

“I think one of the things that over time we’ve seen as a change in the response to active threats is more of a response toward the aggression,” Smith said.

The anniversary of the Westside shooting arrives with painful memories for Jonesboro residents, but it also brings with it valuable lessons and advances in procedures to prevent active threats in the future.

Featured photo by Christopher Lee