Arrests cited in Columbine-style attack plot:
A Major Columbine-like plot has been thwarted in California. Two teens ages 15 and 17 were arrested on Thursday for planning an attack on Quartz Hill High School in California. The plot was scheduled for Valentine’s Day 2006 because, according to the article, a song by Marilyn Manson. The kids were allegedly teased for their “goth” appearance. As we know the media has yet to get the description of “goth” right but back to the matter at hand. Both teens had attended Quartz Rock High but were transferred to other schools for discipline problems. One of those problems may have been this…
The boys, ages 15 and 17, had been on probation in connection with a 2003 assault in which a 14-year-old boy was sodomized with a metal rod.
So you know we’re dealing with well-adjusted individuals here.
Here’s how the plot was uncovered…
The purported plot came to light Wednesday when a girl contacted a Quartz Hill High vice principal and reported that the teens were planning a Columbine-type attack on the school.
Deputies said the girl reported being told by friends that the 15-year-old did not like her and was planning to kidnap and torture her and cut off her arms and legs.
Here’s what was found at each of their homes…
A search of the 17-year-old’s house in Lancaster turned up ammunition, a knife and puzzles about murder and suicide, among other items, deputies said.
Deputies recovered at the 15-year-old’s Quartz Hill residence a gas mask, carbon dioxide canisters, and pictures of Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, Oklahoma City bombers Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, Charles Manson, and Lee Harvey Oswald.
Deputies also found knives, anti-government and hate literature and printed instructions downloaded from the Internet on how to make bombs.
And before anyone starts claiming they were framed and are just misunderstood boys they basically confessed to the plot…
The 15-year-old told detectives that the pair had been experimenting with _and had exploded – carbon-dioxide canister bombs, Molotov cocktails and light-bulb bombs.
The boy showed investigators an injury, the result of a “propane-type pipe bomb” prematurely detonating and sending a screw through a finger.
The boy said he was going to get guns through an unidentified friend from a pawn shop, detectives said.
All because they were teased. Boo hoo…
The boys, who dressed in the Goth style, characterized by black clothing, black makeup and nail polish and piercings, said they felt ostracized at Quartz Hill High, deputies said.
“They were called names,” Detective Steve Owen said. “They didn’t like it and wanted to retaliate against them by killing them.”
You know I wish that people, especially high school kids, were tolerant of people who are different from themselves but we can’t just wave a magic wand and make it change overnight. And intolerance is not against the law. Plotting mass murder and torture is.
And again the age-old question needs to be asked. Where were the parents?
Now some odds and ends…
According to this article from the LA Times the 15-year-old had the word “hate” carved into his arm.
I’m sure this is just a coincidence but Quartz Hill High School’s sports teams are known as The Rebels. The same as Columbine High School.
Here are the lyrics to Marilyn Manson’s Valentine’s Day. Of course, I’m not blaming Marilyn Manson except for being a no talent hack that’s stealing Alice Cooper’s and Ozzy’s old gimmicks.
More on this as soon as more details become available.