Report: 2 Middle School Girls Face Terrorism Charges For 'Columbine-Like' Hit List
BERKLY (WWJ) - Two middle school students from Berkley are facing some very serious charges on allegations they created a "hit list" to harm their classmates and school staff in an act that might have been inspired by the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado.
According to the Detroit News, which obtained court documents, the 13- and 14-year-old girls remain in custody at Oakland County Children's Village without bail ahead of a June 8 pretrial hearing. Both are charged as juveniles with threatening to commit an act of terrorism and making a false report to another person.
If convicted, the girls could be held at a juvenile detention center until their 19th birthdays.
The girls have been in custody since May 22, when officials at Anderson Middle School caught wind of their plan. According to school officials, another student brought one of the girls' notebook to the principal's office which contained "some very troubling information," including a list of students and staff that the student was upset with.
Both students told police they were only "joking around," but documents obtained by the newspaper show that the notebook indicated the girls planed to pull off their caper "in the near future."
"... The plan detailed a map of the gym, awaiting for the students to be at an assembly and also bringing in small guns in backpacks while trying to overtake the office and staff, and then taking out the people who have wronged them," according to the report.
The report goes on to say that one of the girls developed most of the details and "had spoken (with the other girl) about obtaining weapons from her dad, had watched Columbine videos on YouTube recently."
All students, parents and staff that were involved with the threat have been notified by police and school administrators. A letter was also sent home with every student for their parents, informing them of the situation.
An investigation is ongoing.