Eight students are said to have carried out a planned attack on their classmates

Eight girls from a Bay Area middle school were arrested this week after police said they plotted and planned an attack on another student.

The eight Sinaloa Middle School students, ages 12 to 14, were arrested Tuesday and booked into the Marin County Juvenile Detention Center. They are charged with conspiracy and aggravated assault, according to Novato police.

Eight students at a Northern California middle school were arrested after a planned attack on a classmate that was recorded by other students, police said. The attack occurred after lunch at Sinaloa Middle School in the Marin County city of Novato.

(Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)

On May 24, the group gathered at the school after lunch and planned to attack another student, authorities said.

As they attacked, other children began recording on their cell phones, inciting the fight, police said. One student tried to intervene but was also attacked; both students attacked were hospitalized with moderate injuries.

A video broadcast on KTVU-TV showed a girl lying on the ground being beaten and kicked by three other students.

Novato police, along with Novato Unified School District and Sinaloa Middle School administrators, launched an investigation and identified the group responsible for the attack, police said.

An email to parents obtained by the television station shows that the students knew the fight would happen the day before.

“This resulted in a stampede of our students (several hundred) running across campus to watch the fight and see it unfold,” school officials wrote. “This mob grew in size as it ran across campus, causing some students to fall to the ground and be literally mobbed by others.”

District officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday morning.

Principal Christy Stocker and other district administrators spoke with more than 200 parents at the school on Tuesday, according to the Marin Independent Journal. Parents of the injured students said they were physically fine but emotionally shaken.

“This was a horrific attack,” District Manager Tracy Smith said during the meeting, according to the newspaper. “This is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”