Overview

• Four students, ages 10 and 11, conspired last October at Legacy Traditional School in West Surprise, Arizona, to lure and stab a male classmate during recess.
• Each girl was assigned a specific task ranging from bringing the knife to drafting a suicide note and serving as a lookout to disguise the killing as self-inflicted.
• Fellow students overheard the scheme during lunch and recess and promptly informed school officials, averting the planned attack.
• All four were arrested on charges of threatening and misdemeanor disorderly conduct, released to their parents and suspended pending expulsion.
• Mental health experts warn that the girls’ underdeveloped brains and potential exposure to violent online content may have impaired their grasp of the plan’s seriousness.