A Sheridan High School basketball coach has been arrested for sexual indecency with a child, following an internet sting involving police departments from both Conway and Shannon Hills. Fifty-eight-year-old James Randy Gatling was arrested shortly after leaving Sheridan Freshman Academy on Wednesday. Gatling allegedly began chatting with who he thought was a 13-year-old girl from Conway, but it was actually a police officer. 

During the chats, Gatling allegedly asked if "she", had a friend. That's how the Shannon Hills police chief got involved. The chief says this coach is without a doubt a predator, and the nature of Gatling’s chatting was some of the most graphic the officers have seen.

(Chief Richard Friend, Shannon Hills Police) “He was very graphic in the private chats, the web cams were very graphic, and the chats we had yesterday when he was ultimately arrested--he was extremely graphic in what he wanted, and how he wanted it.”

The Sheridan School District says they are devastated by the recent arrest, and the safety of the students is their primary concern.

Gatling spent seven years with the Sheridan School District.