Red Lake

The lawyers say they have received strong expert opinion on their claims that MacNeil's plan was confusing, poorly formatted and contained conflicting directions for school staff.

The deal ends the district's financial liability for the shootings because state law caps legal claims against school districts at $1 million.

But families and survivors could sue other parties. Attorneys representing the 27 people involved in the school settlement said they are looking at their options.

"Our investigation into the circumstances of the shooting continues as we speak," said Minneapolis attorney Philip Sieff, who represented 14 people in the settlement. "This is the end of the families' claims against the Red Lake School District but not the end of their claims in general over the shooting."

The settlement includes families of the five students killed and the seven students injured, and one student who was in the line of fire. It also includes five surviving school workers, the families of the two slain school employees and a relative of the grandfather's companion.

MINNEAPOLIS - Families of victims in last year's shootings on the Red Lake Indian Reservation have settled a lawsuit against the school district for $1 million.

The settlement was to be distributed among 21 families of shooting victims.

In Philip Sieff, an attorney for the victims' families, called the settlement "best for everyone because it provides these highly deserving families some compensation for their losses and allows the School District to return all of its focus to education."

DULUTH, Minn.

A teenager detained in connection with threats this spring at Red Lake High School was sentenced Monday to up to a year in a juvenile treatment facility, according to a report.

The 15-year-old boy, whose name wasn't released, was charged in connection with threats that came to light in mid-April. Parents and guardians were notified by letter that a "group of students were threatening to form some sort of an assault on the Red Lake High School."

The ninth-grader could be released after he finishes a four-month program, the Star Tribune of Minneapolis reported, citing people familiar with the case. The teenager will remain on probation until he's 21, an uncle told the newspaper.

The boy, who admitted late last month to a delinquent act of making terroristic threats, will go to a program at Woodland Hills, a juvenile rehabilitation home in Duluth, according to the boy's uncle.

DULUTH - A Red Lake (Minn.) High School student being held in connection with recent threats at the school where seven people were killed last year appeared Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Duluth, according to a newspaper report.

The Star Tribune of Minneapolis said the nature of the 10-minute, closed-door hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Raymond Erickson was not revealed. The identity of the boy also was not revealed.

Several members of the boy's family attended the hearing but did not share details afterward. The boy appeared expressionless as authorities led him from the courtroom with his hands cuffed behind his back, the newspaper reported.

On Tuesday, FBI Special Agent Michael Tabman announced in a news release, "At the present time, we believe the alleged threat to the Red Lake High School has been neutralized. Because this investigation is ongoing and involves a juvenile, there will be no further comment," the AP reports.

Officials at Red Lake High School arranged extra security after rumors that a group of students planned an assault at the school, which was the site of an attack last year in which seven people were gunned down.

The Star Tribune of Minneapolis, citing unnamed sources with knowledge of the situation, reported Tuesday that a ninth-grade student was in custody.

RED LAKE, Minn., April 25 (UPI) -- Federal officials have foiled a gang-related violent plot at the Red Lake, Minn., high school where seven people were gunned down last year.

An unidentified ninth-grade boy with no record of behavioral problems was taken into custody late last week, and the FBI and Bureau of Indian Affairs agents were working at increasing security at the school, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported Tuesday.

Staff members and students learned of a "hit list" that contained dozens of names, mostly students and a few staff members, the report said.

Paul McCabe, spokesman for the FBI, said today that the agents are assisting Red Lake police but said he could not comment on the situation. McCabe referred a Herald reporter to the Red Lake police.

Interim Police Chief Pat Graves said, through a spokeswoman, that he would not comment to the news media about the situation.

Tribal Chairman Floyd "Buck" Jourdain Jr., is out of town and unavailable for comment, said a tribal spokeswoman.

A school employee said the schools, including a separate building for kindergarten and Head Start about a mile from the high school and middle school, have been in "lockdown" since Tuesday because of the reported threats.

Superintendent Stuart Desjarlaits said school was in session today but refused to comment on the reported threats.

Employees of the school said that reported threats from several students involving violence at the school lead to the lockdown being imposed. The lockdown means students are not allowed to leave the school building during the day, including no recess outdoors for elementary students, an employee said.

The massacre at Columbine High School outside Denver on April 20, 1999, was the deadliest school shooting on record. Two teenagers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who dressed in Goth attire and felt like misfits, went on a rampage that left 13 dead and 24 wounded before killing themselves.

For instance, a 16-year-old who went on a rampage that left eight dead at a high school in Red Lake, Minn., a year ago fit the profile. School personnel described him as a loner who wore black and routinely was teased.

Jeff Weise, who killed nine people at the Red Lake Indian Reservation before taking his own life, envisioned a higher body count and wanted friends to help him turn his high school into a death trap, a yearlong investigation into the shootings found.

His original aim was to lead an attack on Red Lake High School when it was sure to be crowded, possibly on prom night or the first day of school, according to two sources with knowledge of the investigation.

Weise's massacre would have targeted the school's gymnasium as a central "killing zone,'' the sources said. Details of Weise's initial scheme have not been previously disclosed.

The troubled teenager considered executing his plot on April 20, the birthday of Adolf Hitler, one of the boy's idols. That date would have marked the anniversary of the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado, the deadliest school shooting in American history.

Weise's intent was to eclipse that tragedy, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Weise wanted to station armed accomplices at the school's exits and in main hallways, where those who survived the gym assault would run for safety or escape, the sources said.

"The plan was to have them picked off like sitting ducks as they came out,'' said one of the sources.

Why Weise chose March 21 to launch his assault in Red Lake remains a mystery.

Nearly 40 people knew that 16-year-old Jeff Weise had planned some sort of violence at Red Lake High School before he went on a rampage, according to family members who met with U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger on Monday.

Heffelfinger met behind closed doors with those who lost loved ones in the March 21 shooting, when Weise killed nine people before killing himself.

"It's horrid. I just got a headache," said Barbara Brun, who lost her son, Derrick, a security guard, in the shooting. "I wasn't this angry before I came. I haven't been this angry since March 21st."

Brun said Heffelfinger told those gathered at a hotel here that 39 people knew Weise planned a shooting at the high school, and of those, four or five had direct knowledge. Brun said that Heffelfinger told the group Weise had been talking about the shooting since 2003.

"Why didn't someone take him seriously?" she asked.

Last summer, Cobenais suffered a major seizure. For a while, he wore a helmet to protect him from falls. He is back at Red Lake High School now, where he struggles with short-term memory loss.

The Thunders said they were grateful to people who contributed to a community fund set up in their son's name.

Donations are accepted at the Steven Cobenais Fund, Deerwood Bank, P.O. Box 1278, Bemidji, MN 56601.

The teenager will be on probation until he is 21, and during that period, a federal judge will have discretion to send him to other facilities as a condition of probation, the paper reported.