An 18-year-old was charged with making an aggravated criminal threat against Leavenworth High School on Tuesday.
The Leavenworth County Attorney’s office charged Kaden Ray Bentley after he allegedly said he would shoot people at the school. Bentley made his first appearance in court on Wednesday, where his bond was set at $25,000.
“My office takes any threat seriously, especially threats of gun violence involving our area schools,” said Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson in a news release.
School districts in the Kansas City area and across the country have received a surge of threats in the weeks since two students and two teachers were killed in a Sept. 4 shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia.
Elsewhere in Missouri, police arrested a juvenile on Tuesday on gun charges for threatening Ritenour High School in St. Louis online. School leaders said high school students alerted officials about the shooting threat.
On behalf of Missouri families, I want to express our deepest appreciation to law enforcement and Ritenour School District staff for their quick and thorough response to prevent violence from taking place against Ritenour High School yesterday. 🧵
— Governor Mike Parson (@GovParsonMO) September 18, 2024
John McDonald, Chief Operating Officer for the Missouri School Board Association’s Center for Education Safety, said school threats are cyclical. They occur throughout the year, but start in higher numbers near the beginning of the school year before slowing down.
Threats spike after mass shootings at other schools or around anniversaries of previous tragedies, like the April anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting.
“That trifecta of a school tragedy, and beginning of the school year and just the fascination with what's going on and with these attackers — those three things really capture everybody's attention, and now people are spiraled up,” McDonald said. “They're worried, they're nervous, and people take advantage of that.”
Prosecutors charged five children in Jackson County Juvenile Court for making alleged threats at local schools. Two minors in Kansas City, one in Lee’s Summit and another in Independence were each charged with making a terroristic threat.
Another, from Blue Springs, was charged with behavior injurious to welfare. The hearings in these cases are closed under Missouri law.
Police arrested a student at Center Middle School on Monday for allegedly making a threat.
Several districts in the Kansas City area increased security last week in response to threats on social media. Kansas City Public Schools said it added security and conducted regular perimeter checks after two of its high schools received threats.
Dr. Jennifer Collier, the district’s superintendent, said everyone is on high alert because of threats happening nationwide.
“We want them to feel safe and comfortable when they're in school, and we want them to do well,” Collier said. “As we start this school year, to have some students afraid to come -- that is really a painful experience, and it's a challenge for us that we're continuing to work through.”
The Independence Police Department encouraged residents to report threats, but asked them not to re-share them on social media. Police officers were called to Truman High School in Independence last Friday to respond to a student possibly armed in a restroom.
As they were investigating, police received a call about a second student armed in a classroom. The department said the calls were not substantiated.
Dr. Dale Herl, superintendent of the Independence School District, said at a board of education meeting earlier in the week that educators spoke with students about the consequences of using social media inappropriately, including expulsion from school and legal action.
“With social media, the thing I do want kids to understand, it's trackable and it has lifelong consequences to the things that you post,” Herl said.
People can report school safety concerns to Courage2Report, the Missouri Highway Patrol’s anonymous hotline.
