Florida pre-teen allegedly mapped out targets, tactics in planned school attack

DELAND, Fla. (CBS12) — Deputies say a 12-year-old outlined how to sneak guns into school and target “bullies” before an anonymous tip shut the plot down.

According to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, 12-year-old Josephine Simmons Peters was arrested Sunday after an anonymous tipster found the pre-teen’s manifesto online and reported it to Fortify FL, an anonymous reporting platform for school threats.

Sheriff Mike Chitwood said in a news conference that this was more than a kid bringing a gun to school; this was a well-thought-out plan:

It talks about where to hide in a ditch. It talks about how to bring the guns into the school. It talks about who to target.

The middle schooler wrote a 13-step plan to shoot students at Southwestern Middle School, staff, the school resource officer, and herself, according to the criminal probable cause affidavit.

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She also reportedly wrote out the names of specific students she claimed to be bullying her.

The entire manifesto was included in the investigator’s report; however, nearly all of it is blurred because it is reportedly “riddled with graphic language.”

“It’s always going on around everywhere,” a Southwestern Middle School parent told WESH. “And it just seems no one wants to take accountability and responsibility of their students.”

Deputies say they arrested Simmons Peters for counts of making written threats to kill and misuse of a two-way communication device.