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School plan works with ‘To Kill’ list

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

When a teacher at J.C. Booth Middle School came across a handwritten note last month with “To Kill List” scrawled across the top, she reacted exactly as she was trained to do, according to Peachtree City police and Fayette County school officials.

A decade ago, any teacher might have dismissed the roster of 30 names as a childish prank and tossed it in the trash.

But on Jan. 24, when the unidentified J.C. Booth teacher found the note in her classroom, she followed strict policy by immediately informing her principal, who then called police.

After studying handwriting samples, officials were able to determine the list was the work of a 13-year-old boy, who was arrested and charged with making terroristic threats, according to Peachtree City Police Chief James Murray.

His case will be heard in Fayette County Juvenile Court at a later date.

The teen, who remains unidentified because of his age, is no longer enrolled at any Fayette County school, confirmed Melinda Berry-Driesbach, district spokeswoman.

While unfortunate, the incident may have provided the first real-time opportunity for local officials to test out the new “zero tolerance” policy toward threats of school violence, embraced in the nearly six years since the Columbine (Colo.) High massacre.

“It was handled exactly as it should have been,” said C.W. Campbell, coordinator of safety, discipline and athletics for Fayette County schools, of the Jan. 26 incident.

“We have students who choose to make bad choices from time to time, and when they do make bad choices we have rules and regulations we follow to the law.” he said. “When those things occur in our schools, we deal with them swiftly and quickly.”

Campbell’s position was created last year primarily to address many of the concerns raised by Columbine and 9/11, and also to meet federal and state mandates on school safety handed down in the time since.

His office has already staged several mock terrorism or disaster drills with the help of Pete Nelms, the county’s Emergency Management Coordinator.

“We’re in the planning stages of two more,” he said. “Our goal is to move around to all of the different police agencies eventually.”

By preparing for the worst, Campbell says school personnel are better equipped to handle the more routine disciplinary and safety issues.

“Our administrators do a terrific job everyday dealing with problems that come up,” boasted Campbell, a career Clayton County educator before jumping to Fayette County last year.

“We have great students, great teachers and administrators, and we have great parents who understand and appreciate the difference between right and wrong,” he said. “We deal with the little incidents individually, everyday, with that child and those parents.

“That’s what we do.”