Two Roosevelt Junior High students may spend Christmas in juvenile detention after threatening to get a gun and "do what they did in Connecticut" because they were upset over the outcome of a dodge ball game.
The boys, ages 12 and 13, are expected to be charged with second-degree felony counts of making a terroristic threat, Roosevelt police Lt. Ben Lemmon said Saturday.
Lemmon said he was called to the school on Dec. 18 after the boys complained to a teacher about the game, which was cut short because of rough play.
"One boy made the comment, 'I just oughta go home and get a gun and do what they did in Connecticut,' " said Lemmon, who is the school resource officer and interviewed both boys. "The other boy said something like, 'Yeah, I"m in.' "
The boys were interviewed at the school and their parents called before being arrested. Lemmon said he took both boys out of the school in handcuffs and booked them into the Split Mountain Detention Facility in Vernal.
One of the boys was very upset and remorseful and acknowledged making the remarks, Lemmon said.
The second boy denied everything, he said. The boys are friends and both have had school discipline problems in the past.
"The one boy said, "You know we were just joking,' " Lemmon said.
"Under the circumstances and in light of everything that had happened in Connecticut, I felt we had no alternative but to arrest them," he said.
jdobner@sltrib.com