Only a few days after a school shooting in Roseberg, Oregon, left 10 people dead, Northern Californian authorities arrested four male high school students in Tuolumne for plotting a shooting of their own. The suspects plan was very detailed in nature and included names of would be victims, locations and the methods in which the plan was to be carried out.
Advertisement
The plot was foiled on Wednesday after students alerted a teacher when they overheard three of the four discussing a plan to open fire on the school. Detectives arrested the four students on charges of conspiracy to commit an assault with deadly weapons on Friday afternoon at their respective homes and turned them over to the Tuolumne County Probation Department, according to Miami Herald.
“It is clear from past history such as Columbine and Sandy Hook, as well as other recent events in Oregon, that children are willing and capable of planning and carrying out acts of violence against students and teachers on school grounds”, Mr Hovatter said. The suspects’ names were not released because all four are juveniles. The students notified school administrators, who reached out to the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office on September 30. The California state police also thanked students whose timely intervention may have helped prevent another mass shooting in one of the country’s educational institutions. Investigators found “evidence verifying a plot to shoot staff and students at Summerville High School“.
Mele said after the arrests of the suspects, it is believed there is no further threat to the community.
The boys confessed, Mele said, according to the Modesto Bee and KCRA-TV.
Trying to figure out the difference between reality and what’s fiction – in addition to bullying and cyberbullying – has something to do with why these kinds of plans keep coming up in the country, Mele surmises.
Advertisement
No parents of students on the list had been informed.
