Utah teen girl arrested for planning mass casualty event at school
Oct 19, 2021, 7:21 PM | Updated: 7:40 pm
An unidentified school hallway.(FILE PHOTO, KSL TV)
(FILE PHOTO, KSL TV)
A Utah student was arrested for “potentially planning to carry out an attack” at Weber High School, according to district officials.
Court documents first obtained and reported by Pat Reavy of KSL.com showed that the student was a 15-year-old girl who claimed to be conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction.
Weber County School District said the threat involved planning by a student but said there was never an imminent danger to the school or other students. KSL.com reported the student was planning a mass-casualty incident.
The district said early intervention from law enforcement prevented any possible violence. The Weber County Attorney’s Office has filed criminal charges in Second District Juvenile Court in Weber County.
The teen was charged Sept. 30 with use of a weapon of mass destruction, according to documents. The district said it couldn’t release specific details because of privacy issues.
KSL reported the FBI learned of messages it said the girl sent that contained threats, including of planning mass shooting at the school, gathered from information obtained from affidavits. The messages included the threat to create an event ‘like Columbine,’ an infamous school shooting in Colorado where two students killed 13 people, injured 20 others and then turned their guns on themselves.
Police responded to the girl’s home and said she admitted to sending the messages to people she met online. Her phone was seized for a search. She also reported creating napalm and said she was planning an April 2024 attack.
Law enforcement officials told KSL.com a search didn’t locate any napalm but it is believed she had some at some point. The girl is currently in a juvenile detention.
Tuesday, Weber High School sent a letter to parents, explaining that there was a threat but that it could not provide details but said “the case also involves potential criminal prosecution. It said the district also opened an investigation “and will take appropriate action against the student as deemed necessary.”
