Mental health expert weighs in after recent Arkansas school threats

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Threats made to central Arkansas schools over recent weeks have resulted in a higher police presence on campuses and many parents deciding not to send their students to school.

Educator's School Safety Network statistics show the number of school threats dropped from 2016, but Arkansas has seen an increase this year. Five students from Bryant and two in Marion were arrested for making threats or spreading rumors of a threat.

While consequences are being handed out in most cases, many people are asking what could make a student behave in this way. Therapist TeKima Pitts with Reflections Mental Health Service noted that many students suffer from, "anxiety, depression, and just everyday life stressors."

Pitts said she has seen this happen multiple times over the years, and arresting students who make the threats is just the first step.

"We start off with mental health evaluations, that we start off with talking to their teachers, that we definitely go beyond that prison pipeline," Pitts said.

She said there are signs and behaviors shown in students before school threats happen, and when they go unnoticed by parents and teachers a bigger problem like these threats will occur.

She said her advice to parents now is, "therapy, medication management. Mental health is not something to avoid, it's something that we should all be a part of."