Kids caught plotting another colombine

[imported_mega]

RIVERTON, Kan. - Five high school students were expected in court Friday on charges that they fully intended to go on a shooting spree at their high school "? a plot officials said was foiled when one of them discussed it on a Web site.

The boys, ranging in age from 16 to 18, were arrested Thursday, the anniversary of the Columbine massacre, just hours before they planned to shoot fellow students and school employees in what may have been a response to bullying, authorities said.

"What the resounding theme is: They were actually going to do this,"? Cherokee County Sheriff Steve Norman said Thursday.

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The teens planned to wear black trench coats and disable the school's camera system before starting the attack between noon and 1 p.m. Thursday, Norman said. Sheriff's deputies found guns, ammunition, knives and coded messages in the bedroom of one suspect and documents about firearms and references to Armageddon in two suspects' school lockers.

Hitler, Columbine cited
Apparently, they had been plotting since the beginning of the school year. Norman said school officials began investigating Tuesday after learning a threatening message had been posted on MySpace.com.

"The message, it was brief, but it stated that there was going to be a shooting at the Riverton school and that people should wear bulletproof vests and flak jackets,"? Norman said.

Norman said investigators had learned the suspects liked violent video games and some had probably been bullied by classmates. "I think there was probably some bullying, name calling, chastising,"? he said.

It also discussed the significance of April 20 as Adolf Hitler's birthday and the anniversary of the 1999 Columbine High School attack in Colorado, in which two students wearing trench coats killed 13 people before committing suicide.

School officials identified the student who posted the message and talked to several of his friends, he said.

But Riverton school district Superintendent David Walters said the significance of the threat did not become clear until Wednesday night, after a woman in North Carolina who had chatted with one of the suspects on Myspace.com notified authorities there would be about a dozen potential victims, at least one of them a staff member.


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Earlier comments taken as a joke
Riverton student Michaela Ferneau said Friday she had heard she was one of the targets.

Back in January, one of the teen suspects had talked about Columbine, but "we thought he was joking because he was always joking about stuff like that,"? Ferneau told ABC's "Good Morning America"? on Friday.

"I guess I told on them, apparently, when I didn't know I did,"? she said. "It's kind of scary to know that people from a little town like this would even try anything like that."?

Ferneau and other students described the teen as a class clown who was often in trouble with the teachers.

He was an "oddball,"? student Trenton Berry told ABC. "Everybody picked on him and everything."?

Four of the suspects were arrested at their homes Thursday; the fifth was taken into custody at the school.

Charges expected soon
The suspects, who were not immediately identified, were expected to appear in court Friday, when charges are likely to be announced, said Attorney General Phill Kline, whose office took over the prosecution at the request of the county attorney.

The four younger than 18 were being held Thursday at a juvenile detention center in Girard. The 18-year-old was in the Cherokee County Jail. No decision has been made on whether to charge the four juveniles as adults, Kline said.

Officials assured the community that the 270 or so students at Riverton High School were safe and school would continue as normal Friday.

MySpace.com "? a social networking hub with more than 72 million members "? released a statement declining to discuss the case because of the investigation, adding that it has provided users with mechanisms to report inappropriate content.

Barbara Gibson, a 17-year-old junior at the high school, said her classmates didn't seem too bothered by the threat.

"A lot of people just talked about it,"? she said. "But there wasn't much reaction."?

Riverton is a small community of about 600 people along what once was the famed Route 66 in southeast Kansas, near the Oklahoma and Missouri borders.

[jtw61194]

As a teacher, any time I hear something like this it's very disturbing. I would never, ever condone this type of activity, but there is a small segment of the population who may feel completely backed into a corner with no way out. I cover a unit on bullying, and this is why I think it is so important. School violence seems to occur where you least expect it. Most instances occur in suburbs, affluent, or rural areas. It doesn't tend to occur in areas where ther is a great deal of crime. Thank goodness these kids were dumb enough to leave tracks.

[Craes]

you are right, violence is not a way to react like that. Too bad there is not more done about bullying (which falls under violence in my book) too much of it goes on and too many people get picked on constantly.

And the kids saying they were not too worried there was not much of a reaction, what kind of kids do they have at that school anyway?

It's actually scary to think about all this. You send your kids to school and many don't know what all is going on.
Folks if i can say one thing. Talk to your kids.
They will talk if you will listen.
I've seen over the years being around most kids, those who are troubled like the one's above. All they need is someone to listen.
You listen you see the signs before you have problems.
Some you will not stop, but just listening, sometimes you get an idea of what is going on.

Here is alink that may help some see the signs of bullying. And other trouble signs. Read it. Use it. Who knows what you may learn and what you may head off or stop.
You could help a kid or a friend. In more ways than you could even think.

Bullies and Bullying

[jtw61194]

I'm glad to see some of the responses on here about the bullying. And, yes, talk to your kids. They know what's going on and will tell you if you show interest. A lot of kids will rely on the "law of the street"-don't snitch and take care of it yourself. For kids who are not popular, or draw a lot of negative attention from others because of personal decisions, and don't run with a big crowd anyway, this could back them into the corner. I tell my classes a story from my youth that still bothers me. There was a girl in my 1st grade class at BSG Elem. that we always teased and picked on. Never knew why, it's just what we did. I saw her in Piggly Wiggly when I was in the 12th grade and she looked pretty bad, lot of homemade tats, little kids, not in school at PV, etc. I wondered, and it still shocks me that I had such mature thoughts as a relatively knuckleheaded teenager, if ME making this girl feel miserable led her to drop out of school, become pregnant, etc. I'll never forget how ashamed I was. Now, almost 20 years later, I am the anti-bully. I'm a pretty big guy and former paratrooper who is heavy into working with Special Olympics and looks out for those who can't take care of themselves. Sometimes it's as little as finding one common thread that every kid can focus on, so the differences aren't as apparent. Adults, you can make a difference.

[SWVA-Football]

My idea for dealing with these punks:

Set a standard for future punks and chumps to go by.

Take these offenders, strip them until they're in their underpants, and beat the living hell out of them until they can hardly bare to stand. Continue the beating until they're sobbing for mercy. Record it all, and show it to every high-school student in the United States.

This will not only send the message out to others, but will also show that a policy of zero tolerance can and will be taken as a stance against these foolish acts.

I dare any of you to give me a single reason as to why these people WOULDN'T deserve to be beaten.

The final solutions to their decisions would finally be at hand:

Either seek help and be cured of your problems, or plot acts to harm others for something that they aren't part of and receive a beating that will never be undone.

[gcdevil22]

just when i thought i had read the dumbest you have....

[SWVA-Football]

Yeah, and I fully support my idea 100%.

It's about time we stop dealing with this crap by sending these scumbags to institutions and facilities.

Let's instead send them the message that the only destination they'll be reaching is hell, only their tails will be the holder of the flame.

We need to bring back the paddle.

[gcdevil22]

they don't deserve to be beaten becuase they are living beings...just as those kids who have died in school shootings dont deserve to die

are you any better for wanting to beat them as they are for wanting to shoot people? you got some serious issues dude, and not some social-deficient bullcrap either

[SWVA-Football]

Well, here's an even better idea:

How about keeping an even closer eye on any bullying activity that's going on around schools, and instead, focusing the beatings on the bullies themselves. After all, they're the ones causing most of the problems, right?

As for the problems at home, if the faculty notices strange behaviors in certain students, they should have the student(s) checked out immediately and should take things from there.

That'd be my way of doing things, because the systems have today don't exactly seem to be doing the trick.