5 Kansas Students Ordered Held for Hearings Over Alleged Plot
Five high school students were in court on Monday on charges that they plotted to gun down several people in a Columbine-like attack on their small southeast Kansas school.
In two consecutive afternoon hearings, five 17-year-old boys were ordered to be kept in juvenile detention facilities without bail until further hearings could be held, and possibly until a trial sometime later this year, according to the Labette County attorney’s office, which is prosecuting the teenagers.
The five have been in custody since they were arrested Dec. 18. They have been charged with eight counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
Officials said the teenagers mapped out a plan to kill several staff members at Labette County High School in Altamont, Kan., including the high school’s principal.
The alleged plot was uncovered when another student who was invited to participate in the shootings tipped off police, officials said.
Investigators said they discovered more than three dozen guns in four of the suspects’ homes.
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