Two teenagers were arrested Thursday for their involvement in a plan to carry out a mass shooting at the Villages Charter Middle School, the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office said. Deputies told CBS Orlando affiliate WKMG-TV school officials became aware of a rumor circulating about a mass shooting to take place on Friday. Authorities intercepted a 13-year-old boy Wednesday morning as he arrived for school. They said he acknowledged conversations involving the plot and referenced the shooting at Columbine High School. Deputies said that, during a conversation with the 13-year-old, they learned a 14-year-old boy was potentially involved. The 14-year-old also acknowledged his involvement, referencing the Columbine shooting, too. Deputies said the two admitted they planned an attack in which they would use a signal to open fire. Sumter County officials said no weapons were found on either of the students, or in their bags or lockers. They were both arrested at their homes on Thursday during the execution of search warrants. Deputies said firearms were recovered at both their homes during the search. Both students are charged with conspiracy to commit murder. They were placed into the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice. So........these boys lives, due to this, is now "down the drain". What is going on with todays teens???
The problem is they are influenced by so much of what they see, they wanted to emulate the previous mass shooting Parents have a very hard task today to quell the influences that are around these days
I would have loved to hear the reasons why these boys were planning this. Do the parents really know their kids? Where were the firearms they were going to use come from? If from home, the parents didn't know a thing?
That kind of thing bothers me some, and I'll tell you why. I was in the ninth grade about the time that physical education classes were mandated. I didn't play sports and hated physical education. For one thing, the physical education teacher was also the football coach, the basketball coach, and probably the baseball coach, so those of us in physical education were the ones who didn't play sports, and he didn't want to waste time with us. He would just line us up to do exercises for an hour. One day before class, I had climbed the rope and was up near the ceiling when he came into the room. He didn't know I was there. When he had people doing jumping jacks, I was holding onto the rope with one hand and making motions as if I were doing jumping jacks while up on the rope. The coach didn't know I was there but everyone else did, so they were laughing. I did that for a while until he finally saw me, and told me to go sit in the library during his class until I could learn to take it seriously. I never did, and I still got a C in the class for sitting in the library. Before long, there were five of us in the library, the PE rejects. One of our US senators was scheduled to be in town in a few days so one day, purely out of boredom, we made a plan to assassinate him. We drew a diagram of the downtown area, and marked areas where snipers would be placed, and I don't even remember what all else but, of course, there was no intention on the part of any of us to even listen to his speech, let alone assassinate him. It was just a way of passing the hour. When we were done, we left our plans on the table in the library. A couple of days later, we were called into the office, where there was actually someone from the FBI. Well, it didn't take him very long to realize that he wasn't dealing with a genuine threat and he left, after making us realize that we would never be able to qualify for a government job. Well, I already wasn't going to be able to qualify for a government job because I had written some dirty words on a rock in elementary school once, so that was no big deal. But that was it. My father didn't even find out. Today, we'd be in all of the news reports and we'd be in prison for the rest of our lives. Now, I don't know that this was the case with these kids but I do think there should be some evidence that someone is actually taking steps to carry something out before their entire lives are ruined.
Yes they have, but have people changed so much? There have always been school shootings, and there are probably more now because they are so heavily publicized and kids know that they can become famous that way. I still think that childhood is the time for making mistakes and there should be some allowances for it.
I deleted my post Ken if that's what your replying to.....I woke up too early today and went back for a nap and was woken up by a phone call, so wasn't really awake when I replied. . Sorry.
Seems kind of strange they 'fessed up like that. If they took the time to plan something as big as that, and study about Columbine that happened before they were even born, they would find out about what happens if they are arrested. Being their age, I imagine they were scared, but yes, to ruin their lives. I don't think that kids that age think ahead that much, some do I know, but I didn't. It was all about "today" and what exciting will happen in my life. I thought good things though, I dreamed too much and didn't know what the heck I wanted, only what I didn't want, and the was a life like I had at home. And seeing all the media and what adults are doing?? The crazy stuff widely broadcast?? I'm scared as a senior, let alone if I were a teen today
I thought that yours was a perfectly good post, @Chrissy Cross. Times have changed. Although there have always been school shootings (interestingly, in the early days of this country, the teachers were often the ones who shot their students), there are more of them today. I accept that, although there are probably not so many more of them as we are led to believe, largely because no one was keeping track of them in that way a hundred years ago, and a local school shooting wasn't on the national news, but also because the hype around school shootings today encourages disturbed kids to do that as a way of becoming famous. So yeah, I don't think that we should wait until someone has actually killed someone before looking into something but I do think that there should be some evidence that a kid actually intended to carry out a plan before we lock him up for the rest of his life. I still consider things in my head sometimes that I would never actually do, and kids talk a lot of this stuff out. What happens when the government is able to get into our heads? Do we go to jail because we have a crazy fantasy?
What a great read Ken, and really got me thinking about all OP. I was just listening to a discussion on Fox and one gal mentioned that the msm has some kind of need to make something more exciting to be happening, even if they have to make it up. It hit home for me, because they aren't used to "real" business going on, and really good things happening. They want to twist it to get more viewers or something?? After watching Madonna and Ashley Judd, I'm thinking they are "has beens" by their own creepy actions, and was this a way to be on stage again?? Judd is doing exercise commercials and no movies of late that I know of. Was it all a "show". Is this protesting a show, they sure as heck don't have a valid reason to protest. Trump has never said anything about stopping abortion, not that it couldn't come to past. But why would people make such a huge fuss over the "what ifs". I think you could be very well right Ken. I think more investigation, etc. needs to be done before they "just assume" another couple of terrorists born in the US
They even do that with the weather. Whenever they are warning of a snow storm, I automatically cut that by about a fourth, and that usually turns out to be the more accurate prediction.
If someone was to check the reason for such killings, I've read statements like: "We were bored" and "We just wanted to know how it felt to kill someone". And, if their hands are just slapped, what happens if they try it again and actually do a mass killing. Who will be held accountable for that? Something has to be done. And, if they really had intentions on doing this, it's their lives THEY ruined.
That's what I'm suggesting that they do a lot of investigation before they assume the worst. Not that kids even thinking about this isn't bad, but the we need to determine between a sick game, and the reality of actually doing something. Since the guns were found though, that's a pretty big indicator if they were found in the "kids" hands, not maybe guns their parents might have for hunting or protection.