Arkansas Mobile Crisis Teams - Fort Smith, Arkansas


		Mobile Crisis Team
		On April 19, 1995, at approximately 9:00 am, our staff was going about the start of another clinical day as usual. The news came over the radio in the Community Relations office that a bomb had gone off in Oklahoma City, only a couple hours away from us. The television was immediately tuned to CNN, where it remained throughout the day. Our staff was put on alert status to provide crisis debriefing for the victims and families. As it turned out, our staff was not needed to assist in Oklahoma City. However, we did not go unaffected by the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building. We lost friends and family in that devastating tragedy. And, what's more... we lost a sense of safety and shelter from the world outside the 'heartland'. We shall never forget that day. One year later, on April 21, 1996, at approximately 11:10 pm, a tornado left a path of destruction through Sebastian and Crawford counties in Arkansas once again shaking our fragile sense of safety. Our staff set up counseling services to comfort the victims with the assistance of a grant from FEMA. Jonesboro School Shootings On March 24, 1998, two boys -- armed with two semiautomatic rifles and several handguns -- pulled a fire alarm to force classmates out of Jonesboro's Westside Middle School, then opened fire from a wooded area, killing four students and a teacher. On his 14th birthday, Mitchell Johnson pleaded guilty to killing four classmates and a teacher and wounding 10 other people. Another Jonesboro boy, 12-year-old Andrew Golden, pleaded not guilty due to mental incompetence but still was found guilty by a judge at a juvenile court hearing August 11. Craighead County Judge Ralph Wilson Jr. sentenced them to the custody of Arkansas Division of Youth Services, which will determine when the boys are released. The longest they could be held in a juvenile facility is until they reach age 21, although the state currently has no facility to hold them beyond age 18. The judge added a proviso: that if the juvenile system releases them before they turn 21, they must serve 90 days in jail -- the maximum allowed by law under such a proviso -- and will be on probation until they are 21. The Mobile Crisis Team is located at the Primary Service Center in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Because they are juveniles, the boys were not put on trial before a jury, were not convicted of murder and were not subject to a life sentence or death penalty. Instead, the only issue for the judge to decide was guilt or innocence of juvenile delinquency under Arkansas law. Gov. Mike Huckabee has said he would build a new facility or modify an existing one to hold them as long as the state can. Center staff traveled to Jonesboro to counsel students, teachers at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro. Mobile Crisis Team 3111 S. 70th St. Fort Smith, Arkansas 479-452-6650 TF. 800/542-1031