PERRYVILLE – The Perryville Police Department, Perry County Sheriff’s Office and Perry County School District No. 32 held its second press briefing Sunday regarding the telephoned threats which forced an evacuation of Perryville High School and Perry County Middle School on two occasions this past week.
Perryville Police Sgt. Jeri Cain, Perry County School District No. 32 Deputy Superintendent Fara Jones, Perryville Police Chief Direk Hunt, Perry County Sheriff Jason Klaus and School Resource Officer Teresa Worthington conduct a press briefing Friday following the second instance of threatening phone calls were made concerning the Perryville schools. A second briefing was held yesterday to announce the apprehension of a juvenile in connection with the incidents.
Police Sgt. Jeri Cain conducted the briefing, announcing that thanks to a school resource officer a juvenile suspect was identified over the weekend and was brought to the station by his guardians and during that interview admitted to making the phone calls Wednesday and Friday. She said the youth did not have access to firearms and explosive devices, despite threatening such violence against the schools Wednesday and Thursday. Police would not provide an age for the student, though they did say he had recently transferred to Perryville.
“When I spoke to you on Friday,” she said. “I talked about the officers who work within the schools. What I didn’t say is how vital a role they play in investigations such as the one we are dealing with. The relationship built between the school resource officer and their students are vital because a student would not disclose information to a regular officer, but they trust their SRO enough to talk with them. It is because of this type of relationship; our investigators were able to develop information which has led to the resolution of this case.”
Perryville Police Chief Direk Hunt said the break in the case came Saturday.
“On Saturday, January 14, 2023 School Resource Officer Teresa Worthington received information from a Herculaneum Police Corporal about a student who had transferred to the Perry County School District recently. This information was shared with our investigators, and they coordinated efforts to locate the suspect.
“In addition to this, information was also obtained Saturday morning by one of our detectives from an off duty school resource officer from Fredicktown. He had been approached by a student that morning at a sporting event with information about a possible suspect. The SRO then forwarded the information to our detectives.
“The suspect was identified as a juvenile and guardians were asked to bring said juvenile to the station to be interviewed. They immediately complied with our request and through the interview process, the juvenile admitted to making both phone calls (last) week.
“The juvenile has been turned over to juvenile authorities. Because of the age of the suspect, we are unable by law to release any further information about the juvenile. it will be up to the
juvenile prosecutor to determine what charges will be filed.
“I want to thank all of the agencies that worked on solving this case. Without interagency cooperation, we would not be where we are. I would like to add through our investigation, we were able to obtain information for other jurisdictions about similar incidents alleged to have been cornrnitted by this individual. We will be contacting those jurisdictions to provide them with any assistance that we can.
“I would like to again thank the school distict for their invaluable cooperation and assistance with providing information to our detectives to support this case.
“I want to assure the public that the Penyville Police Department will continue to do all it can to ensure the safety of all students, staff and visitors to our school campuses.
Sergeant Cain continued the briefing, stating: “Going forward, we are working with the school district to coordinate another sweep of the entire school campus prior to student return on Tuesday. Given the information obtained through the investigation, we are confident the suspect did not have access to firearms or explosive devices.
“Our officers will continue to patrol the school zones throughout the day and do periodic walk throughs of the buildings as time allows for them to do so.
Perry County School District No. 32 Deputy Superintendent Dr. Fara Jones then addressed the gathered media:
“This is an ongoing rnulti-jurisdictional investigation that involves a juvenile, so our law enforcement professionals will take the lead on sharing those details. It is vital that nothing jeopardizes the progress of this investigation and potential prosecution.
“First, I want to thank the team that has been working around the clock this week to bring us this resolution: Perryville Police Department, Perry County Sheriff’s Department, our School Resource Officer Teresa Worthington, the district administration, and in particular, our technology directors Dan Querry and Jonathan Tucker, and our communications director Kate Martin.
“The existing partnership between these agencies and people played a vital role in the speed and success of the investigation. I also want to thank our local law enforcement for calling in state and federal assistance as they deemed necessary.
“This week has been difficult for our students, staff, parents and entire community. The very first responsibility of a community is to provide safety for its children. Many of us have not felt completely safe since this situation began on Wednesday. I want to address steps the district has taken and will take to ensure that our students – your children – are safe as we return to school on Tuesday and as we move forward.
“There are security protocols that we will not share, of course, to protect the effectiveness of our procedures. However, as I said on Friday, the district’s emergency operation plan was successfully implemented on Wednesday and followed throughout the week, in partnership with our incredible law enforcement partners. We were able to safely evacuate two of our five schools on Wednesday, account for every student, reunite students with parents who wanted to sign them out, and then resume classes for the remainder of the day. I cannot overstate the efforts of our teachers and staff, nor the care and concern they show every day for our students. As a parent of a district student myself, i give my heartfelt thanks to them.
“Our middle and high schools were swept by law enforcement on Friday, and nothing of concern was found, and another walk-through will be conducted prior to Tuesday. I have implemented our “Heightened Alert” procedures for the coming week. That includes extra supervision for students, and more frequent visits by our law enforcement personnel, Our counselors and school-based therapist will be working with students to allay any anxiety they may have after this incident, and we will call in additional assistance if needed.
“While we have a resolution today, we will, as always, conduct a series of internal reviews to identify where we may improve our protocols. Further, a multi-agency incident review is scheduled, Our administrative team will then present a recap of those reviews to the board of education, and that information will be shared with our parents and community.
“Finally, I want to thank our parents for the trust they place in us each day. We’re all looking forward to seeing our students back in class on Tuesday.”
Perry County Sheriff Jason Klaus then took the podium: “In any adverse situation, you have an opportunity to grow and learn, and we, as a law enforcement and school community, have done so this week. Our officers and school administration has shown great resolve in bringing this situation to a safe conclusion. This, again, would not have been possible without the long-standing relationships we share within this community, and surrounding agencies. I would like to personally thank those specific officers who reached out with information that assisted in identifying this individual, as this greatly expedited our investigation and to our own School Resource Officer: Teresa Worthington, thank you for representing our departrnent and our school district, and deeply caring for our students.”