Basha High

School-shooting 'joke' ends with guilty plea by Chandler teen:
Kelley Kaminski, the 17-year-old girl who was arrested for plotting to shoot up Basha High School in Arizona, pleaded guilty today to a felony charge of interfering with an educational institution...

Judge John Gaylord sentenced the teen to intense probation and home detention, which means Kaminski must check in with her probation officer before leaving home. She was previously on house arrest and under 24-hour supervision.

The judge also ordered her to continue therapy sessions and complete her education plan of correspondence courses. Kaminski is not to have contact with anyone from Basha High or be within "reasonable distance" of the school.

But like I said before since she was tried as a juvenile the sentence can only be enforced until her 18th birthday in March.

Less than a year of probation for plotting the deaths of several others which she still claims was "just a joke". Is it enough? Not even close.

As always it was your pleasure.

Plot gets mixed reviews: (4th story down)
Some testimony out of the hearing on the Basha High School shooting plot...

Kelley Kaminski, the 17-year-old Basha High School student who was arrested in April after a disturbance at the Chandler school, apparently has her sights set on filmmaking.

At a hearing Tuesday, it was offered by Kaminski's lawyer that the girl's notebook of drawings of the school grounds was for "a clay model for a movie" - and not a Columbine-type shootout.

Movie design, that's a new one. Whatever happened to the Silly String defense?

Anyway, some say otherwise...

Detective Brett Lockwood of Chandler Police didn't sound like a film buff.

"The drawings had the (school's) exits marked and what appeared to be fields of fire," he told the court, calling them a "fairly accurate" map of the Basha campus.

And some would have you beleive that this was just lunchroom gossip.

No adult trial in Basha plot:
I first told you about Kelley Kaminski here and here. I'll just quote the article...

Kelley Kaminski, the 17-year-old Basha High student arrested in April on suspicion of plotting a violent attack on the school's campus, will not be tried as an adult and will remain under house arrest.

In a two-hour hearing Tuesday before Superior Court Judge John Gaylord, one of two felony counts against Kaminski was dropped. The judge found the girl did not intend to cause damage to school property.

However, Gaylord allowed the charge that Kaminski intended to disrupt school to stand and set an adjudication hearing for Aug. 10.

"I do find it to be a serious offense," Gaylord said. "I'm going to leave her here (in juvenile jurisdiction). It's been a close one as I've thought about this case over the past two to three months."

Defense attorney Melanie Beauchamp argued that "lunchroom gossip" at Basha had mushroomed and placed Kaminski at the center of a Columbine-style plot that never existed.

The prosecuting attorney had this to say...

In arguing that Kaminski should be tried as an adult, Beth Beringhaus, deputy county attorney, said, "This was an extremely intricate plan" and that the impact is still being felt in the community.

I'll let you, the fair reader, be the judge. Was this "lunchroom gossip" or intricate plan. This is a quote from my first post on this case...

they would start killing teachers from three points of school, including the bus loading area and the front office area, the warrant states.

“I don’t care who they are, everybody’s dying,” the student quoted Kaminski as saying.

Afterward, they would ditch their clothes and return to the school in different ones. One of the three would be in charge of hurting the other two to make it look like they also were victims.

An officer later found the possible script in the notebook, which read, “There’s a large fight going on between two students, a teacher and a parent. We need all security, all security, to the office.”

Sounds pretty intricate to me.

In the interest of fairness I did receive comments from friends and family of Miss Kaminski which can be read here. They talk mostly about police and media conspiracies and first and fifth amendment rights violations. It's an interesting read.

If she is found guilty the sentence would only be enforceable until her 18th birthday in March.

A lot of news happened Friday night and over the weekend so let's get to it.

School plot charges sought:
I originally told you about the Basha High School threat and Kelley Kaminski here. Now her two unnamed cohorts will more than likely face criminal charges as well.

The 15-year-old male said he could bring a shotgun to school and a broken shotgun was confiscated from his house. He later said he was just joking.

The 16-year-old female said that they should stab themselves to make themselves look like victims as well. She later said she was only venting.

So we have the trifecta of defenses of silly string, joking, and venting. Let's not forget that the police confiscated an arsenal from Kelley Kaminski's house. So kids, tell me. Were the jokes really that funny that they're worth risking a prison term over?

School Threat Lands Students in Jail:
Two students from the Covenant School in Virginia have been charged with making such threats as "Don't worry about it, we'll just Columbine everyone." and for compiling a hit list...

The 15-year-old girl has been charged with two counts of communicating a threat in writing and one count of conspiring to communicate a threat in writing. The male involved is a 17-year-old who has been charged with one felony count of conspiring to communicate a threat in writing and one count of assault.

More details are given in this article. The male suspect has been in previous trouble for bring a knife to school hidden in a guitar case and held the knife up to another student's face. He was also reported to have brought a gun to school but it has not been determined if the gun was real or not. The male is also on suspended probation for two felony burglary charges, three petty larceny charges and one charge of vandalism. The female suspect was the author of the hit list.

We also have another attorney turned comedian...

The boy’s lawyer, Mike Hallahan, said the situation had been misinterpreted and argued that his client should be allowed to go home, which is about 65 miles from The Covenant School’s Hickory Street campus.

“It’s a school prank,” Hallahan said.

Emphasis mine.

Of course it's a prank. I remember my days in high school when we used to pull knives on each other and hold them up to each other's face. We'd just laugh for hours afterwards. That was sarcasm for those who are humor impaired. Do criminal defense attorneys actually believe these "joke" defenses will work or are they do desperate for a defense they'll try anything?

School administrators faced with tough call on shooting rumor:
At Roseville High School in California there was a rumor going around that a shooting would happen on May 16th. A lot of kids stayed home that day. The school, in its infinite wisdom, decided not only to stay open but to also not notify the parents. I can understand not closing down the school if the rumor is unsubstantiated but to not notify parents until after the fact is just careless.

That's all for now.

As always it was your pleasure.

East Valley girl had script for school rampage:
There was a school plot broken up in Arizona this past week. 17-year-old Kelley Kaminski (pictured) is being charged with plotting to carry out the attack on Basha High School.
School officials were tipped off when students told school officials they had disturbing conversations with Kaminski in which she discussed plans to shoot students and faculty...

According to one of the students, Kaminski told her that she and the two other students would enter the school’s front office at 6 a.m. wearing black long overcoats and thick leather gloves to protect against "gun residue," the warrant states. Armed with guns and knives, they would kill all security guards, police officers and anyone who tried to call 911, it continues.

When police searched her house they seized several firearms and her computer...

Detectives seized two SKS assault rifles from the back of a sport utility vehicle in the garage, along with a .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol, a .40-caliber pistol and several boxes of ammunition, according to the warrant, served April 28. A laptop computer, a "My creepy little thoughts" diary and two notebooks also were taken from inside the home.

There were also accomplices...

A 16-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl were named as accomplices Wednesday. Detectives are recommending they each be charged with the same two counts Kaminski is facing — interfering with an educational institution. Their names were not released.

But it gets better. First of all, all three suspects are free...

Kaminski was released from juvenile detention Wednesday and put under house arrest. Family members have been ordered to watch her around the clock to keep her safe from herself and the community, a judge ruled.

And the two accomplices have not been charged yet. One of them is using the "joke" defense...

On Friday, the 16-year-old suspected conspirator told detectives that she thought Kaminski was only joking when she talked about the shootings.

Never heard that one before. However Kaminski herself is using the most original defense to date. The "silly string" defense...

In interviews with a detective, Kaminski said she did make statements to other students at lunch about a shooting, but those comments were not meant to be interpreted as using a gun, but rather a "Silly String gun." Other students said Kaminski never mentioned Silly String in their conversations, the warrant states.

Johnnie Cochran must me smiling from above at that defense. (If the gun has no string, then charges we'll bring.) The thing is it's hard to believe the Silly String defense when witnesses have reported the following...

they would start killing teachers from three points of school, including the bus loading area and the front office area, the warrant states.

"I don’t care who they are, everybody’s dying," the student quoted Kaminski as saying.

Afterward, they would ditch their clothes and return to the school in different ones. One of the three would be in charge of hurting the other two to make it look like they also were victims.

Another student recalled a similar conversation the day before, when she said Kaminski showed her detailed diagrams, drawings and notes in a notebook.

The student told police that she saw a script of what they were planning to say over the intercom to corral students and staff into the auditorium.

An officer later found the possible script in the notebook, which read, "There’s a large fight going on between two students, a teacher and a parent. We need all security, all security, to the office."

That doesn't sound very silly to me.

More as it develops.

Other Articles:
Details of school attack plot jolt parents
School threat spurs forum
Chandler girl accused of plotting school attack had guns, ammo at home
Parents express outrage after teen is released from jail