BELLE — Maries County R-2 School District held classes as usual on Friday with additional precautions in place following a warning to be on alert for gun violence from the Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP).

“We are good,” said Superintendent Dr. Lenice Basham after school on Dec. 17. “We made it through the day and our attendance was above 90 percent.”

On Dec. 15, MSHP notified schools across the state of a potential shooting threat on Dec. 7 that was posted to Tik Tok, a video-focused social media platform. The post referred to a threat to school safety “for every school in the USA, even elementary,” on Dec. 17, calling it “American School Shooting Day.” 

MSHP advised all schools in Missouri to be vigilant and take precautions against the nationwide threat.

Basham said they took extra precautions in the classroom, made sure everything was locked up and followed safety precautions by reviewing procedures for that incident.

The school resource officer was present and the Maries County Sheriff and Bland Police Departments were present at both campuses.

Basham said the suggested threat was very generic and looked more like it was telling kids not to come to school versus an actual threat.

“Of course, we want to take precautions,” she said.

Basham said on Friday that the morning went well and the school resource officer (SRO) officer stayed vigilant. 

“The high school had extra patrols,” she said. “Doors were locked at the administration building and the SRO did regular checks.”

An unannounced backpack check came at both the high school and middle school by Maries County Sheriff’s deputies. Backpacks were left in the hallways for the search. Interior and exterior doors were locked as students celebrated the last day of school with Christmas parties throughout the day.

Maries County Sheriff Chris Heitman said the day went well.

“We had good coverage and no incidents,” he said. “We didn’t think the threat was credible, but wanted to be prepared just in case.”

Heitman said six deputies were focused on the schools throughout the day.

“We saw a bunch of people posted that they wanted to close the schools because ‘it’s not worth it’ on the sheriff’s Facebook page,” Heitman said. “The problem with that is if you do, we will have people making threats all the time to get out of school.”

Heitman said the district had good safety precautions and security measures in place and his officers were prepared.

“Our deputies train every year on school shooting scenarios,” he said. “The schools also have lockdown drills.”

In the neighboring Gasconade County R-2 School District in Owensville and Gerald classes were canceled for Dec. 17 after a direct threat was discovered written in two restrooms at Owensville High School (OHS).

Superintendent Dr. Jeri Kay Hardy had sent out a letter to families on Dec. 15 notifying them of MSHPs warning. At that time Hardy told families that the district had not received a direct threat. By 2:27 p.m. on Dec. 16, writing in two different restrooms at OHS made references to a school shooting.

School events for Thursday, Friday, and weekend activities were canceled. Hardy, local, county and state law enforcement agencies spent Friday morning searching each school and pouring over video footage to collect names of students who had used the facilities on Thursday.

In contrast, Basham had said on Dec. 16 that letters would not be sent out to families that would risk drawing more attention to the threat.

“We have not sent something out. We felt it was a very generic warning,” Basham said. “We are always concerned about sending something out that kids don’t know about and then making them aware. We are trying to be cautious about not creating more conversation with the kids about it.”

As of Monday evening, Gasconade County R-2 was still searching for the suspect. Both districts’ officials have indicated that pre-COVID measures, such as locking interior doors during class, would be reinstated.

Basham said they will be more cautious in the future.

In Maries County R-1, Vienna, Superintendent Teresa Messersmith said Tuesday afternoon that students were released to Christmas break on Friday.

“Maries R-1 did not have any incidents,” Messersmith said. “The school district asked students to not bring book bags to school on Friday.”