2 Teens Who Threatened To Shoot School Students In Illinois Arrested

Students from two schools in Lake County, Illinois, were arrested Monday after threatening to shoot their peers at their respective institutions.

The first incident took place at the Eustis Middle School in the afternoon. According to authorities, a 14-year-old student told one of his friends while riding in the school bus, “I’m going to bring my gun to school and you won’t be messing with me after I come over and shoot ya’ll.”

Following the threat made by the student, deputies of the county sheriff’s office went to his home. The father of the student told the police the boy was a convicted felon and hence was not permitted to have firearms inside the residence. The claim was confirmed by the mother of the student, which meant that it was unlikely that the student would have had any access to firearms inside his own house, Orlando Sentinel reported.

When the teenager was arrested at his school premises at 9:43 a.m. local time (10:43 a.m. EDT), he did not deny making the threat. He told the authorities he made the threat “due to other students at school bullying his brother, and threatening him” and that he “made the statement out of anger and did not intend to carry out the threat.”

The student was charged with making a false threat to use a firearm. The deputies also noted that he had a previous record of arrest for bringing a BB gun and marijuana onto campus at Treadway Elementary School.

Hours later, the deputies responded to South Lake High School in Groveland, Lake County, after a student claimed he had bumped into one of his peers on the sidewalk outside the school, who told him, “Yo, I got a toolie.”

The student who heard the 17-year-old suspect, told authorities around 12:30 p.m. local time (1:30 p.m. EDT) that he believed that it was a reference to a gun. When school administrators and the police located the suspect and emptied his backpack, they found a magazine with 15 rounds of 9 mm ammunition but no gun.

Then, a deputy, accompanied by the teenager’s mother, went back to his residence to search the property and discovered a pistol. The student admitted to purchasing the firearm from Smith & Wesson at a Webster flea market. The motive of the student behind purchasing a gun was not disclosed.

The student was charged with aggravated assault against one individual, making a false report concerning the use of firearms and purchase of a handgun by fraud for not purchasing it through a certified retailer.

In August, the New York Times reported that the Department of Education was considering implementing a federal education law called “Student Support and Academic Enrichment grants” to use federal funding for purchasing guns for teachers.

“The department is constantly considering and evaluating policy issues, particularly issues related to school safety. The secretary nor the department issues opinions on hypothetical scenarios,” Liz Hill, a spokeswoman for the Education Department, said.

According to people familiar with the proposal, if the department decided to carry out the plan, it would be the first time a federal agency authorized the purchase of weapons without a congressional mandate.