Averted school shooting plots in February

At least seven school shootings were averted this month when police were notified about plans, photos of guns, specific threats, and manifestos.

Seven years after Parkland, school shootings were averted in communities across the South and Midwest at:

• Memorial High School - Houston, TX

• Mooresville High School - Mooresville, IN

• Madison Middle School - Nashville, TN

• Seminole Middle School - Seminole, FL

• Campbellsport Middle/High School - Campbellsport, WI

• McMinn County High School - McMinn, TN

• Unnamed Elementary School - Lubbock, TX

While many schools have a formal threat assessment team that monitors students behavior, these attacks were averted by tips from other students, parents, and community members. School shootings are rarely planned in secret which means there are opportunities to spot warning signs on social media, group chats, and forums like Discord (what parents need to know about Discord).

If you missed it, here is a look back at each planned attack that happened at a k-12 school since the start of the 2017-18 school year when Parkland happened.

In other school shooting news, Brenda Spencer—the 16-year-old girl who committed a sniper attack at an elementary school in Southern California in 1979 was denied parole for the 6th time during a court appearance last week.

Spencer fatally shot Principal Burton Wragg and custodian Mike Suchar, and injured nine others on Jan. 29, 1979. She opened fire from her bedroom window while students waited for the gates to the campus to open up. This is just one of a dozen sniper attacks at schools since the 1970s.

Spencer was charged as an adult and sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison. She's been eligible for parole since 1993, but has been denied release each time. Spencer won't be eligible again until 2028 when she will be 65-years-old.

Now that the history lesson is over, here are the averted school shootings in February.

Feb 19. Memorial High School - Houston, TX (coverage by KHOU)

The FBI received information on Tuesday February 18 about a post on Twitter/X that two students (girls aged 15 and 16) were in the early stages of planning an attack that involved pipe bombs and guns at Memorial High in Houston.

An unnamed 16-year-old girl is accused of creating a plan to place pipe bombs at Memorial High School and then carry out a mass shooting. The threat included notes on the layout of the schools and tactics that the two girls would use to kill as many students as they could while also delaying the police response.

At juvenile court on Friday, it was revealed that the girl was once a student at the school but was moved to a different school within Spring Branch ISD, called Academy of Choice, designed for students who are behind in their studies. The teen was quiet and didn't have any disciplinary issues, which is why she wasn't on their radar when it came to potential threats.

The teen was detained during class on Tuesday about 30 minutes after police learned about the messages that were being sent on social media. The teen's mother appeared in court via video call and detailed her daughter's struggles with mental health, including depression and anxiety. She said the 16-year-old girl had self-harmed before, so she locked up the knives and removed the doorknobs in her home to keep closer tabs on her daughter.

The second girl involved in the plot—who attends a different school—also planned to carry out the attack. The second girl, who is 15-years-old, is also being held in juvenile system.

February 19. Seminole Middle School - Seminole, FL (press release)

On February 18, 2025, detectives arrested a Seminole Middle School student for Written Threats to Kill or Conduct a Mass Shooting.

Detectives say the 11-year-old sent several photos to a classmate holding handguns and threatening to shoot and kill several students at the school the following day. One of the messages stated, “I’m going to kill him. All of them.”