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Two 12-year-old girls have been arrested in Laredo, Texas after allegedly threatening to carry out a shooting at their own middle school.
The girls, who have not been identified, were detained on Sunday and confessed to making threats, Laredo Police Department said.
Laredo Independent School District suspended classes at Cigarroa Middle School, where the girls are students, and Cigarroa High School on Monday. Surrounding elementary schools were placed under “additional security protocols.”
Laredo police warned the school district of the threat at around midnight on Monday after they received reports from more than 10 members of the community.
Police said they took “swift” action, and sent officers to three homes in the early hours of Monday morning.
The girls who allegedly made the threats were identified and police spoke with their “cooperative” parents. The pair then reportedly confessed to officers that they had intended to follow through on their threats.
It is not clear if the girls have been charged.
Laredo Police Chief Mike Rodriguez said at a press conference later on Monday that officials conducted precautionary sweeps of Cigarroa Middle School for weapons but none were found.
He added that it was “very sad to have to detain a 12-year-old for something they think, or thought, was a joke.”
He also highlighted the danger of threatening posts made to online social media platforms.
Rodriguez spoke of the school shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia last week where two 14-year-old students and two teachers were killed. A 14-year-old student, Colt Gray, has been charged as an adult with four counts of murder.
“We know what happened in Georgia. We know what's happened before in other schools, and we're not gonna let it happen here,” the police chief said.
The school district’s superintendent, Dr Sylvia Guerra Rios, said: "It is sad to think that a 12-year-old can actually incite this kind of a situation. "But it would be sadder to see if this kind of situation actually became a reality."
Classes resumed as normal at the Texas schools on Tuesday.
