FOND DU LAC, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A Ripon High School student who wrote a “hit list” and left it in a school bathroom was convicted Monday.
Lillian Cavell, 18, pleaded no contest to a felony count making a terrorist threat and a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct.
If she does not commit any crimes for the next 18 months, and completes several terms – including performing community service and getting her high school diploma – the felony conviction will be erased from her record.
She was also sentenced to 40 days in jail on the disorderly conduct charge.
According to the complaint:
A student found the list on Dec. 4. It had the names of 17 students and one teacher, and at the top of the list said, “Gonna (expletive) kill them.”
The high school and middle school were placed on “soft lock down” while the investigation continued.
Those whose names were on the list were brought into one room. They were showed copies of the list, but no one recognized the handwriting. The students were then released to their parents.
Using security video, police narrowed down to a pool of 22 students who entered the bathroom. Cavell, who police said acted suspiciously during the group briefing, was the only student who entered the bathroom whose name was on the list. Police compared several homework writing samples from Cavell to the note, and found multiple similarities. Also, police recovered a notebook from a classroom garbage, and matched the paper tear to the note. Cavell was the only student to leave that classroom and go to the bathroom during the time the hit list was placed, the complaint states.
Cavell denied writing the note in an interview with police.
“She said she didn’t write it and she said “I didn’t write it and I’m sticking to that.” Cavell also talked extensively how she would have no reason to do because things are going good and those people are all her friends on the list,” the complaint states.
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