On March 24, 1998, 11-year-old Brittheny Ryen Varner-Wilson was killed in a mass shooting at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Two fellow students, 13-year-old Mitchell Johnson and 11-year-old Andrew Golden, triggered a fire alarm and opened fire on classmates and teachers as they evacuated. The attack killed four students, including Brittheny, and one teacher, Shannon Wright; ten other students were wounded.

Johnson and Golden were apprehended at the scene and found to be armed with multiple firearms stolen from a family member of one of the boys. Because of their ages under Arkansas law at the time, they were adjudicated delinquent and confined until age 21; Johnson was released in 2005 and Golden in 2007. The motive for the shooting was never definitively established.