An Ozark County teen has been arrested after allegedly threatening to kill students at school in Dora. Seventeen-year-old Skyler Ledbetter was arrested September 25th after a student at the school showed a principal a private Facebook message he had received from Ledbetter.
School officials say the message indicated Ledbetter had a plan to drive a truck through the school wall and into the cafeteria at lunch time and detonate explosives to kill everyone who has bullied him.
The Ozark County Times reports Ozark County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Winston Collins responded to the school and interviewed Ledbetter. Collins says Ledbetter at first said he didn’t send the message and his phone had been hacked but later admitted to sending the message, saying voices had told him what to do.
Ledbetter is charged with a felony count of terroristic threatening in the second degree. He is due back in court Tuesday.
Ledbetter has been suspended from school and Superintendent Steve Richards says he has the authority to suspend Ledbetter for 180 days. After that, the Dora School Board then can permanently expel the student.
The school posted a message on its Facebook page the day the threat was received alerting parents to the threat. A letter went out to parents two days later saying there was no immediate threat to the district or the student body. The school was never placed on lock down.
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