Stoddard County teen allegedly had plan to kill fellow students

PUXICO, Mo. -- Stoddard County officials released details Tuesday involving a Puxico teen's threat to kill 29 fellow students at Puxico High School on her birthday in March, the Dexter Daily Statesman reported.

The juvenile girl was arrested Feb. 11 and is undergoing a mental health assessment, according to Mike Davis, head of the Stoddard County Juvenile Office.

According to Davis, a parent of another Puxico student called a school administrator and said a female student had made the threat. Authorities learned that the girl not only posted a photo of herself holding a high power rifle on a Facebook Web page but had also solicited the help of fellow students in orchestrating her plan.

"Based on the information gathered by school officials and the juvenile office," Davis said, "the threat appeared viable."

The girl, whose name and age cannot be released because of her juvenile status, has been charged with "communicating a threat to cause an incident condition involving danger to life."

The girl, Davis says, planned to fire a gun from the rooftop of Puxico schools on her upcoming birthday in March, and it was confirmed the girl threatened to take the lives of 29 students on that day. Her plan involved convincing other students to activate the school's fire alarm system as she retreated to the school roof to shoot students as they exited the building.

She was apprehended at Puxico High School in the northwest part of Stoddard County on Feb. 11. She is being held in Bloomfield, Mo.

Judge Joe Z. Satterfield later permitted the transfer of the juvenile to a hospital for an in-patient mental health assessment.

Satterfield stresses that there is a protocol in place for cases of this nature, with the protection of the juvenile and the community foremost in the minds of authorities involved in the case.

"The juvenile undergoes mental health assessments which help to determine the threat level to the juvenile and to the community," Satterfield says, adding, "The juvenile is immediately appointed legal counsel in cases where the parent does not provide for one."

Mental health providers will be asked to provide guidance to the juvenile, the family, the court, and the school, Satterfield noted.

"Parents, the juvenile and legal counsel, relatives and community partners play a vital role in the court process as well," he concluded.