5th graders’ plot to stab and kill classmate in public bathroom revealed after 10 months 

Four fifth-grade girls at a school in Surprise, Arizona, have been accused of plotting to lure a classmate into a bathroom and stab him to death, according to multiple media reports. 

The plot allegedly happened at Legacy Traditional School, a public charter, in October 2024, but it is only now being disclosed.   

And because the school is withholding details – citing federal privacy laws – there are multiple accounts of what exactly happened. 

Fox 10 Phoenix reports the goal of the girls accused in the plot was to “just end him” after a classmate allegedly broke up with one of the conspirators.  

The victim was suspected of dating another girl.  

The local Fox station said that all four girls were arrested on charges of threatening and misdemeanor disorderly conduct.  

Local KPNX, which first broke the story, reports that each of the girls was given a specific assignment in the plot, according to police reports.  

One was supposed to obtain a knife; one was to forge a suicide note; one was to act as lookout; and one was to stab the victim. According to police accounts of the scheme, the girls planned to wear gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints.

The plot unraveled when students heard the girls talking about luring the boy into an outside bathroom during lunch and recess and promptly notified administrators, KPNX reports. 

The girls, all ages 10 or 11, were students at Legacy Traditional School in Surprise, Arizona, said People.  

The next day the girls’ backpacks were searched, and they were questioned by police with their parents present. They all readily admitted to participating in the plot.

Three of the four expressed remorse, but the fourth and her father allegedly “smiled and laughed while making excuses for their actions,” according to the police report.

NBC News, however, had a slightly different version of how the murder plot failed.   

In its account, a student who overheard the plot notified a parent, who then tipped off school officials, who called the plotters and their parents into school the next day to be questioned by police.  

One of the four girls said she participated because she didn’t want her friends to think she was “weird” for refusing to assist in the scheme, reported NBC.  

Another student said she was simply joking, and she backed off when she realized the plot was serious. 

A third plotter said she also thought it was a joke until she was assigned the role of lookout.  

Travis Webb, a licensed clinical therapist interviewed by local Fox News 10, said social media has desensitized kids to violence. 

“Their brains are underdeveloped at 10, 11 years old,” Webb said. “The female brain isn’t even quite half developed, the part of the brain that regulates emotion. That kind of talks sense into this. It’s early 20s before the female brain is finished developing.” 

Webb added that the landscape today is fraught with moral challenges for children that didn’t exist 30 years ago. 

“2025 is different than 1995. It’s different than 1975,” he said. “They don’t really come up with this on their own. They don’t think violently. They certainly don’t think about gloves and fingerprints and suicide notes [on their own].” 

Webb warned parents about giving children unrestricted access to the internet, which exposes kids to mature concepts. 

All four of the alleged co-conspirators were released to the custody of their parents and were awaiting expulsion at the time of the investigation, media reports agreed.  

When contacted recently by the legal site Law and Crime, the Surprise Police Department declined to provide further updates, noting it “has not shared and does not plan to share any further details about this incident.” 

The parents of the perpetrators all declined multiple media requests for comment.  

It’s unclear how KPNX obtained a crisp, clean copy of the police report, unlike the photocopies typically provided in journalists’ information requests.

“Due to federal student privacy laws, we cannot discuss individual student disciplinary matters,” said a statement released by the school according to NBC. “As outlined in the Legacy Student Code of Conduct, any student who makes or shares a threat may face disciplinary action, up to and including expulsion.” 

According to the police report, the parents of the victim in the case wanted the girls to be prosecuted, said NBC.  

The incident highlights a growing trend of public schools citing federal privacy laws to withhold information, especially about student violence.