Mustang Superintendent Karl Springer responds to media questions Monday.

Youth faces complaint in connection with school threat

By Carolyn Cole/The Mustang News

Students walked through metal detectors to get into Mustang Middle School Wednesday morning, after a threat to shoot “Christians and preps” was found Monday on walls at the school and Mustang North Middle School Tuesday.

Mustang Police Capt. Willard James said officers had detained a 14-year-old male student they believed had written the threat that called for the shooting to take place Thursday. The threat was found on Mustang Middle School stall walls in three boys bathrooms. James said the teenager admitted writing the threats, but had said he did  not intend to carry them out. He said the child did not give a reason why he wrote the threats.

James said officers had used the handwriting style of the messages to help identify the student. He added his department intends to forward a felony complaint of transmitting written threats to the Canadian County District Attorney’s Office.

James said increased security measures would continue at Mustang Middle School. The department assigned two officers to the school, in addition to the school resource officer who works from Mustang High School.

“That’s to facilitate a safer feeling for the students and also parents about sending their kids to school,” James said.

Springer said the school district learned Tuesday afternoon that threats were also found at Mustang North Middle School and that similar security precautions were being taken at that school site. He said the threats were almost the same in nature as those at Mustang Middle School and a Canadian County Sheriff’s deputy who works with the district had already started his investigation. Springer said he expected the issue to be resolved by Wednesday afternoon.

“We have already identified a student who maybe involved in this at our other school,” Springer said, Tuesday afternoon.

He added, “I hesitate to say that this is a copy cat kind of a thing, but it could turn out that is what it is.”  

Springer said he expects having school metal detectors will be a temporary safety measure.

Council seats, charter question head toward vote

By Fawn Porter/The Mustang News

Mustang voters will cast their ballots Tuesday to decide who will represent them in City Council Wards 5 and 6, and whether to move the city’s primary election date from March to February.

Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.

In Ward 5, incumbent Councilwoman Linda Hagan will face Joe Conner.

Hagan, who is retired, is the senior member of the City Council, serving off and on since 1972. If re-elected,  Hagan is promising to keep issues on the front burner such as improved roads, drainage in her ward and more playground equipment in city parks.

She said while she may not always agree on a personal basis with the issues brought to her by her consituents, she finds it her duty to present them to the Council, to champion for the people who have elected her.

Joe Conner, a 31-year-old truck driver, made his decision to run for City Council when the current Council was investigated by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

“I am not a political person,” Conner said. “And I don’t think the Council should be either.”

Conner said he wants to bring a “younger generation of ideas” to the Council and to work as part of a team.

And, if elected to represent Ward 5, Conner said he’d like to see Heights Drive, in his ward, have a drainage ditch put in as well as a road to the high school to ease traffic flow through the neighborhood.

In Ward 6, three-year City Councilman Darrell Noblitt is seeking to serve a second term. His challenger is Len Scott.

Noblitt, who is in the oil business, said the issues he believes are important for the city include securing a long-term water source for the city, providing additional parks programs and continuing to beef up the city’s infrastructure.

Noblitt has also been critical  of the mayor’s business dealings and their impact on city issues.

“Elected officials should be held to a higher standard and Mustang deserves for the Council to be mindful of that standard,” Noblitt said. “It is of far greater importance for us not to allow our votes to be tainted with the appearance of impropriety.”

Len Scott, a businessman who owns a Goodyear store in Bethany, said he would bring his business acumen to the Council.

“I think I can bring a lot to the Council in a business sense,” he said.

Scott also said he is a proponent of seeing Mustang grow and be developed economically.

“I want to see Mustang attract businesses … and I want to see those businesses actually make it here,” he said.

In the charter change, the city  is seeking to amend the city charter by moving the primary elections from the third Tuesday in March to the second Tuesday in February bringing into compliance with the state’s election calendar.

Area polling locations include:

• 300: Holy Spirit Catholic Church, 1100 N. Sara Road;
• 301: Mustang Community Center, 1201 N. Mustang Road;
• 302: Mustang Nazarene Church, 700 East state Highway 152;
• 304: Mustang Heights Baptist Church, 646 West state Highway 152;
• 305: The Bridge AG, 1116 West state Highway 152;
• 306: Chisholm Heights Baptist Church, 2243 West state Highway 152.