Deputies have arrested two students on charges of conspiracy to commit a mass shooting.
According to Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno, an 8th-grade teacher at Harnes March Middle School in Lehigh Acres received information about a student who possibly had a gun in his bag.
It’s not known how the school was being threatened, but students are safe and the school day will continue as normal, according to Alex Dworzanski, Principal of HMMS.
School administration searched the student and bag and found no gun, however; they did find a map of the school with the locations of all the school’s interior cameras.
Deputies identified two students they say were involved in a plot to carry out a school shooting, Connor Pruitt, 13, and Phillip Bird, 14.
Marceno said the teens were extensively studying the columbine shooting incident and shooters, how to construct pipe bombs, and how to purchase firearms on the black market.
After searching their homes, deputies found knives and guns in their
Marceno said both teens are well known to law enforcement and have been to their homes more than 80 times.
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office held a news conference regarding the incident.