Boy Sentenced for School Attack Plot

A Fullerton junior-high school student accused of hatching a Columbine-style plot to gun down classmates was sentenced Friday to 180 days in a juvenile facility.

The youngster, whose name was withheld, admitted to Juvenile Court Commissioner Gregory Jones that he solicited another person to commit an assault with a deadly weapon on school property, said Cynthia Herrera, Orange County deputy district attorney.

Jones also sentenced the boy to probation and court counseling. Herrera said a court order prevented her from releasing more details about the case.

The December arrest shocked parents at Ladera Vista Junior High School, many of whom chose to keep their children away from classes as details of the plan emerged.

Fullerton police interviewed about 20 students and said they had discovered an elaborate plot to take over the school and wage a “path of destruction.” Police found no weapons during a search of the boy’s home but discovered maps of the school showing the route the 14-year-old planned to take.

The student’s arrest coincided with a heightened awareness on school campuses of copycat threats in the wake of April’s mass shooting of 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. The attackers then killed themselves.

In Fullerton, students learned of the boy’s plans and alerted officials. Since then, however, the tension immediately following the widely publicized arrest has subsided, and students and teachers have returned to their routines, Principal Carolyn Millikin said.

“The school has moved on,” she said. “We tell our kids all the time that we respect them, but that showed them how much we do listen to them.”