No Physical Hit List, Beatrice Middle School Seventh Grader Suspended

BEATRICE – Beatrice Police say no physical hit list was found and a Beatrice Middle School student did not have access to weapons from his home.
Police released more information Monday on the incident, which resulted in a 13-year-old seventh grade boy being removed from the Beatrice Middle School late last week.

Beatrice Police Chief Bruce Lang said, "We worked on it all weekend just to try to uncover the facts and get away from the hysteria. During that time, it was determined that an actual physical list, probably didn't exist. The student also didn't have any access to weapons and was not intending to do anything. Mainly, it was some middle school boys joking around in a very inappropriate fashion."

Lang says police learned of the matter on Thursday but stepped up investigative efforts on Friday when the situation escalated. He said young people must understand there are certain things you don’t casually joke about.
"If you're a student in school, you don't joke about hit lists and those kind of things, because people are going to take that very serious".
The chief says Beatrice Police Officer Tim Price, a school resource officer, had been investigating rumors at the middle school of someone mentioning persons names being on some kind of a list.

Lang says the school environment is very secure.
"Those schools are secure, meaning that they're locked, twenty four-seven. You don't just walk into the middle school or any other school in Beatrice, without someone allowing you in. The fact that he's suspended from school, not allowed back in...certainly, the students inside the school are safer than anybody".

Police searched the boy’s home and Lang said the parents of the youth have been very cooperative with the school and authorities. The seventh-grader has been suspended from school, and his return or the timing of that return, is a decision left up to school officials.