I really don\'t think they totally realize what they were planning to do, but still.

[img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Three Boys

Arrested in Plot to Shoot Third Grader

Thursday, March 18, 2004

FORSYTH, Mont.: Two second-grade boys and

an 11-year-old schoolmate were arrested after they buried a loaded handgun in a playground sandbox and plotted to

shoot and stab a third-grade girl during recess, authorities said Thursday.



Sheriff Tim Fulton said the

boys intended to harm the young girl because she had teased two of them.

The plot included a .22-caliber

revolver and a boxently brought the weapons from home to school on Wednesday morning, prosecutor Michael Hayworth

said. The intent was to assault the girl over the recess hour that day, he said.

\"You think about what could

have happened. It could have been ugly,\" said Brenda Stabelfeldt, who has a daughter in the fifth grade and went

to the school over the lunch hour Thursday to give the girl a hug.

Fulton said classmate of the two younger

boys, both 8, was the one who alerted the school of the plot.

\"I need to commend that young man for such a

brave act,\" the sheriff said. \"He saved the lives of who knows how many people.\"

The boys were identified

in court records as Klint Cook and Levi Strait, both second-graders, and Blake Belgarde, a fifth-grader. They were

charged Thursday in juvenile court with conspiracy to commit assault with a weapon.

In Montana (search), the

names of juvenile suspects are public if the crimes they are accused of committing are felonies in adult court.



Forsyth (search) is about 100 miles east of (search). The school has about 200 students in kindergarten through

the sixth grade.

\"Needless to say, it is a frightening experience for a community and our schools,\"

Superintendent Dave Shreeve said. \"We believe it\'s an isolated incident but it does bring into reality that

this can happen in any place at any time.\"