Student Held in Plot to Kill Classmates

A Bakersfield high school freshman was arrested and four classmates were suspended after sheriff’s deputies uncovered an alleged plan to kill seven students and a campus police officer, authorities said Monday.

Kern County Sheriff’s Sgt. Chevy Garza said the names of the alleged targets were being e-mailed among a small group of students at Centennial High School. After being tipped off Sunday to the alleged plan to shoot the victims, detectives arrested a 15-year-old student, who they declined to identify, on suspicion of making criminal threats.

The campus officer and the parents of students on the list were notified immediately, Garza said.

Four other students, all freshmen, are believed by investigators to have participated in circulating the e-mails and were being questioned by authorities.

School authorities suspended them until the investigation is completed, detectives said. A parent of one of the four voluntarily turned over to deputies seven legally possessed firearms for safekeeping.

Sheriff’s deputies seized computers belonging to some of the students as part of the investigation, Garza said.