Ohio police arrested four children after finding a concealed weapon and several "hit lists" at an elementary and middle school in Elyria, WJW reported.
According to police records, on Tuesday a 10-year-old girl brought a large knife in her backpack to Franklin Elementary School. The girl was reported by a student to a fourth-grade teacher, and a 10-year-old boy was identified as working with the girl to write a list of students they wanted to “stab to death,” WJW reported.
"In some of her writings, it mentioned how she wanted to stab people," Elyria Police Captain Christopher Costantino told WJW. "So she actually not only talked about it but brought in something to follow through with her threat."
The list, which was thrown in the trash, was later found by a janitor. Police said the children added names to the list due to “them being mean and not nice to them.”
Also Tuesday, a 12-year-old boy at Eastern Heights Middle School was arrested after allegedly making a list of students to kill. He was discovered when a teacher overheard another student ask the boy to “show me the list of people that you want to kill.”
“The message is this: It's very clear we will not tolerate any type of threats against any students or faculty at any of the schools,” Costantino told WJW. “Each one of these students was charged with aggravated menacing and making terrorist threats and taken to the juvenile home."
The first of these threats was reported last week at Eastern Heights when a 14-year-old student allegedly said she was going to "shoot up the school.” The school’s principal observed a notebook containing a “hit list” containing the names of students and teachers, WJW reported.
“When you say something in a threatening way or in some way that might make others feel unsafe there are consequences to that, and it's essential that parents relay that information and have those conversations at home,” Amy Higgins, communications and marketing director for the district, told WJW.