BARTOW, Fla. — Two Florida middle school students, ages 11 and 12, are facing criminal charges after acknowledging to police that they had brought knives to school to murder over a dozen younger children and then kill themselves so that they could “be with Satan.”

According to reports, the two girls came up with the plot over the weekend while watching scary movies. Another student tipped off a teacher at Bartow Middle School that they had heard that “something bad” was going to happen on Tuesday. The teacher then alerted the principal, and extra police resource officers were placed on watch that day as a result.

After the mother of one of the girls received a robo-call that their child was not in class that morning, she called the school to advise that her daughter should indeed be there as she had dropped her off. Principal Christopher Roberts immediately organized a search, and Assistant Principal Chandra Johnson found the girl and a friend in the bathroom, holding a goblet.

The girls were escorted to Roberts’ office where they were asked to empty their pockets. After one of the girls pulled out a paring knife and a knife sharpener, the school resource officer also searched their bags and found a number of weapons, including a butcher knife and a pizza cutter.

When questioned by police about their motivation for bringing such objects to school, the girls reportedly advised that they were Satanists, and that they had planned to kill younger children in the bathroom and then dismember them and drink their blood out of the goblet.

“They wanted to kill at least 15 people, and were waiting in the bathroom for the opportunity to find small kids that they could overpower to be their victims,” Bartow Police Chief Joe Hall explained in a press conference.

Hall also outlined that the girls planned to leave some of the body parts of their victims at the entrance before killing themselves.

“They told us they were Satan worshipers. They did make comments that they were willing to drink blood and possibly eat flesh,” he explained.

The two girls were arrested and are now facing both felony and misdemeanor charges, including conspiracy to commit murder. Local television station WFLA reports that the arrest affidavit states that “[k]illing all of these students was in hopes that it would make them worse sinners, ensuring that after they committed suicide [they] would get to go to Hell so they could be with Satan.”

Police have also reportedly found messages between the two girls that confirm their plot, as well as a self-drawn map that read “go to kill in bathroom.”

Hall remarked in a social media post that the incident “shook [him] to the core.” He expressed thankfulness that the school and police were able to thwart the plot before anyone was hurt.

The late Anglican preacher J.C. Ryle, in speaking on the Adamic sin nature of all men, cautioned in his book “The Duties of Parents,” “Never listen to those who tell you your children are good, and well brought up, and can be trusted. Rather, remember that their hearts are always ready to burst into flame like dry tinder. At their very best, they only need a spark to ignite their evil. Parents are seldom too cautious. Remember the natural depravity of your children, and be careful.”

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