A 14-year-old former Oliver McCracken Middle School student from Skokie pleaded guilty Aug. 21 in a case where prosecutors said he was one of two boys accused of planning a shooting at the school.
The boy, who is not being identified by name because he is a juvenile, pleaded guilty to one count of disorderly conduct in front of Judge Steven Bernstein at the Skokie courthouse and is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 2, officials said.
Prosecutors said the teen and another student made a “hit list” of “people they planned to shoot.”
The second student charged in the case, a 13-year-old who is also from Skokie, was scheduled to be in court Monday.
Bernstein is expected to accept the plea deal, but it is unclear what punishment the teen faces.
However, the judge took time in court to admonish the boy to continue with his education.
“I want you to go to school – every class,” Bernstein told him.
The boys’ were arrested April 19 after another student at the school who believed he or she was possibly the target of a planned shooting by the two boys reported the incident to school personnel, school officials said at that time.
The student who reported the information has not been publicly identified by gender or age.
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The boys accused in the incident were referred to the Juvenile Justice Bureau of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, police announced at the time.
At the time of the arrests, Skokie police said the two boys did not have any known access to firearms and no weapons were recovered.
Police also said in April that it was determined the teens didn’t have the ability to acquire any weapons.
In addition, police said three other students suspected of knowing about the shooting plot were interviewed and released to their parents. But police in April also said that based on the report the school gave to police, they treated the incident as “an actual threat.”
McCracken, with its approximately 340 students, is on of three schools that make up Skokie School District 73.5.
Police and school officials have declined to discuss the incident, including how the student who reported the plan came to believe he or she was targeted. But police in April said the role of social media in the incident remained under investigation.
In 2014, McCracken School closed for a few days because of a series of Instagram social media threats that were posted and shared among sixth graders. School and police officials said that after investigating that incident, police determined it was a social media prank.
Probes into the April incident revealed the situation was not a hoax, police said.
“If there’s a threat like this, there’s no margin for error. We take it seriously and [we] investigate to the fullest extent,” Skoke police Chief Tony Scarpelli said in April.
Pioneer Press reporter Jennifer Johnson contributed to this report.
Brian L. Cox is a freelancer.