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[bman94]

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/students-sound-alarm-avert-florida-school-massacre-n713076

A potential tragedy at a central Florida charter school was averted when students sounded the alarm that two of their classmates were planning to "shoot up the school on Friday."

The whistleblowers alerted authorities that the accused teenagers had warned certain students at the Villages Charter Middle School to wear white shirts and say the safety word "Eugene" to avoid getting shot, according to a police report released by the Sumter County Sheriff's Office.

A 13-year-old suspect "was intercepted by authorities as he attempted to arrive" at the school on Wednesday, the sheriff's office revealed in a press release.

"At the time, he acknowledged conversations involving the plot and referenced the mass shootings at Columbine High School," the sheriff's office said.

The teenage suspect also implicated a 14-year-old boy who was "quickly" located at the school, which is located in the town of The Villages, about 60 miles west of Orlando.

"The student informed officials that the two students had planned an attack which included what they would use as a signal to open fire," according to the sheriff's office. "No weapons were found on either of the students or in their bags or lockers."

But firearms were found in the Fruitland Park home of the 13-year-old and in the Wildwood home of his alleged accomplice — one of them an AR-15 assault rifle, according to the police report.

Both students are now charged with conspiracy to commit murder and local law enforcement is breathing a big sigh of relief.

"The Sumter County Sheriff's Office is grateful for those students brave enough to speak out about the plot," the sheriff's office said. "Their heroic actions may have prevented a deadly tragedy and loss of precious lives."

The sheriff's office did not identify the students who went to authorities and the school referred all calls back to law enforcement.

Under questioning, the suspects gave a tearful confession during which the younger teen said he had been depressed, according to the police report.

"I just want to die," he told investigators and insisted he had been joking about staging the shooting.

But under questioning, the teenage suspects also admitted they were supposed to meet at the gym and start shooting.

The signal to open fire? A dropped pencil.

The April 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado by two disgruntled students has been the inspiration for other massacres.

Among them the murders of 20 first-graders and six staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut by another troubled young man armed with an AR-15 assault rifle.

I have no tolerance for bullshit like this, whether it was a real threat or not. There was a shooting that took place on my high school's campus my freshman year. The fear of not knowing what's happening. The school just suddenly being put on lock down. Panicking, students freaking out, security and police scoping the campus. Then the tears. So much tears. Campus becomes an environment full of depression and sadness. You walk by an area everyday and just think "that's where X got shot at". It's a horrible feeling that no school should have to go through.

Mental health is real and needs to be seriously looked at. This almost happened at a middle school. 11-13 year olds. Thoughts of mass murder and panic. The fact that the student said "I just want to die" is a telling fact about mental instability that our youth is facing and we can not continue to ignore it.

 

[ABOVEtheRIM]

Thats messed up, what the fuck is wrong with people

 

[Neoleo2143]

Thank God those Students took the threat seriously. Bless those kids.

 

[nintendoman58]

The kids who sounded the alarm are freaking heroes.

Thank goodness that nobody ended up dead.

 

[Auctopus]

13 and 14 is fucking mental.

 

[Bucca]

A 13 year old with access to an AR-15.

Fucking. America.

 

[rjc571]

But I'm sure the Republicans plan to give students firearms with which to defend themselves would have been equally effective at averting a crisis situation

 

[Stead Fast]

This please! Mass shootings take time to plan, there is definitely a moment or two during that time where anyone even slightly aware of a threat can end it peacefully.

Also, in before Trump tweets how he had a hand in stopping this, such a hero.

 

[cordy]

I'm so glad students informed the authorities. Reading this was painful. Even the thought of it potentially happening is just painful damn man. Fuck.

Stuff like this makes me worry about when I have a child.

 

[daffy]

13 and 14 is fucking mental.

They weren't even alive during Columbine. Mass shootings have become a constant threat.