Slideshow: Tornadoes ravage Plains

Sue Ogrocki / AP

A monster tornado hit Moore, Okla., Monday afternoon, leaving scores dead as the threat for more storms continues.

Launch slideshow

About 9.5 million people remained under the threat of more "large and devastating" tornadoes Tuesday as the storm system that devastated the suburbs of Oklahoma City moved east, forecasters warned.

Weather Channel meteorologist Kevin Roth said early Tuesday that the threat area appeared to be east and south of Oklahoma City.

"Tornadoes, damaging wind gusts and large hail are possible throughout the threat area," Roth said.

He added that cities including Dallas-Ft. Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Shreveport, Texarkana and Little Rock were among the cities "close to the the larger tornado threat." 

"Another day of large and devastating tornadoes is possible this time from central/east Texas into central Arkansas," Roth said.

"Severe threat continues farther to the east Wednesday, although the overall severity appears to be lower."

Weather Channel forecaster Bill Karins told MSNBC that 9.5 million people lived in the area at most risk of more tornadoes. He said the likely pattern for twisters was the same as in recent days, with the biggest risk being in the late afternoon.

The National Weather Service said storms were expected Tuesday "from the Great Lakes across the Mississippi River Valley and into central Texas."

The agency issued a tornado watch late Monday for portions of east central Illinois, western and central Indiana, western Kentucky and southeast Missouri. The watch was in effect until 5 a.m. local time (6 a.m. ET). 

According to Roth, severe storms appeared possible from southeast New York to east Maryland on Thursday.

He added: "An early look at Memorial Day Weekend shows that most of the country should be quiet. The stormiest weather appears to be across the Plains and Midwest with scattered showers and thunderstorms."

Related:

• Full coverage of the Oklahoma tornadoes from NBC News
• More news from weather.com

This story was originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 4:26 AM EDT

Sue Ogrocki / AP

A child calls to his father after being pulled from the rubble of the Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla., on Monday.

When the sirens began blaring and teachers at Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla., heard that a monstrous tornado was roaring toward their 57-year-old school and its youngest students, there was nowhere to hide.

They crouched in hallways and bathrooms, waiting, hoping and praying. Then "the school started coming apart," one neighbor who sought shelter at the school told the Associated Press. A teacher told NBC station KFOR that she draped herself on top of six children in a bathroom to shelter them.

The massive twister scored a direct hit at 3 p.m. (4 p.m. ET), tearing off the roof of the mostly one-story public school, a cinder-block building that had no chance of withstanding shrieking winds that may have topped 200 mph -- the powerful outer edge of what the National Weather Service said was at least an EF4 tornado, the second-most-powerful rating.

By Tuesday morning, the death toll at the school stood at seven. Officials said the children drowned in a pool of water at the decimated school. Rescuers were continuing to dig through the school’s rubble, from which several children were pulled out alive Monday evening.

It's unclear if any other children were killed or trapped alive.

Hysterical parents who had converged on the sprawling pile of broken concrete and twisted metal were later taken to a church to await word on the fate of their youngsters.

The two-mile-wide tornado wiped out entire city blocks of Moore, the hardest-hit Oklahoma City suburb, killing at least 51 people, including 20 children.

Exactly what transpired at Plaza Towers in the minutes before the tornado unleashed its destructive power has yet to be described. School officials evacuated fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders to a church about a quarter-mile away before it touched down, but the younger students – kindergartners through third graders – remained at the 440-student school, according to KFOR in Oklahoma City. It was not immediately known why school officials divided the students.

BING / Microsoft Corp., Steve Gooch / AP

Before and after aerial photos of Plaza Towers Elementary School.

But Mayer Nudell, a security and safety consultant, did not fault the decision to ride out the storm at the school.

“For something like a tornado, it’s fairly academic,” he said of the options that school officials would have had once the sirens began. “You don’t go out, and you don’t have much warning.”

Despite the carnage at the school, “shelter in place” has emerged as a staple of disaster planning and the strategy of choice for a range of emergencies, including tornadoes. And studies show it has a good track record of saving lives.

On May 3, 1999, for example, when another monster tornado roared through Moore, some 300 students and their parents were attending an awards ceremony in the West Moore High School auditorium. Though the twister badly damaged the school and tossed 150 cars in the parking lot like tinker-toys, those who hunkered down in the school’s hallways suffered only a few superficial injuries.

But there are experts who say that having a large number of people crowded into a big building is a bad idea when maximum-force tornadoes are sweeping through an area.

Chief among them is Joe R. Eagleman, a professor emeritus of the University of Kansas and author of “Severe and Unusual Weather,” a meteorology standard since it was first published in 1983.

He agrees that there was likely insufficient time between the first warning and the time the tornado hit the school, constructed in 1966, for Plaza Towers administrators to consider sending students home. “If time is short, being caught out in the open is not good,” he said.

But he said dispersing the students to their homes would have improved their odds.

“If there is sufficient warning time, the homes would be typically safer because they are smaller buildings and offer more opportunity to get in a downwind corner of the likely approach,” he said.

Eagleman is widely credited with debunking what was the prevailing school of thought on tornadoes for much of the last century: that the safest spot to take shelter is the southwest corner of a building. The reasoning behind the fallacy was that, since most U.S. tornadoes travel from west-southwest to the east-northeast, a twister would hurl debris into the northeast corner of whatever building it hit, likely taking out anyone cowering there.

But Eagleman conducted an extensive study after an EF5 tornado hit Topeka, Kan., in 1966, and found that the southwest corner – the direction from which a tornado was most likely to approach – was in fact the most dangerous area to hide.

“It used to be a rule that the southwest corner was the safest, no questions asked, but it was not based on any data,” he said.

Once Plaza Towers officials made the decision to have the students and teachers shelter in place, the school’s disaster plan would have kicked in. The staff and student body would likely have been well-coached, given the school’s location in “Tornado Alley” and Moore’s history of destructive tornadoes, though Eagleman noted that “it varies all over the place as to what the planning has been for severe storms.”

In any case, with no basement, students would have been moved into a hallway or small room away from the southwest corner of the building and any windows and instructed to either sit or crouch.

“You want a place that is structurally secure, without windows, so you don’t have to worry about flying glass,” said Nudell, who also is an adjunct professor of security management at Webster University in Webster Groves, Mo., and co-author of “The Handbook for Effective Emergency and Crisis Management.”

Both men said the school’s construction would have been important to its ability to withstand a powerful twister.

“The buildings that are made of reinforced concrete are typically very sturdy,” Eagleman said. “Those made with concrete blocks are not.”

But given the destruction visible after the tornado swept through Moore, it’s possible that no building would have withstood the intense pressure that the tornado brought to bear on the building, Nudell said.

Nudell also cautioned against jumping to conclusions about the emergency planning or safety of the school.

“When you get a tornado like the one that it sounds like hit Oklahoma, sometimes all the preparation and planning in the world doesn’t help you,” he said.

NBC News' Erin McClam and Tracy Connor contributed to this report.

Related stories: 

• Monster tornado tears through Oklahoma
• Six of the worst tornadoes in US history
• Full coverage of Oklahoma tornadoes from NBC News

Michael Welch was midshift into his job at KFC in Newcastle, Okla., on Monday afternoon when he noticed hail pounding the parking lot outside the restaurant.

Then, as he looked into the distance, he saw the wall cloud of an enormous tornado rotating in front of him.

“It was very large and very fast,” he said.  “I could see debris flying all over.”

The 24-year-old cook grabbed his HTC cell phone and dashed into the parking lot and started recording video. “Probably not the best thing to do, but I did it.”

Most of his coworkers took shelter, but his manager stayed at the door while he filmed, Welch said.

“Oh, my God!” he screams on his video -- seen by thousands on NBC News and YouTube -- as the tornado, which killed at least 51 and injured scores more in the area, passes. 

He said an F4 tornado that hit his house in Blanchard on May 24, 2011, helped alleviate his fear.

“I think that gave me the courage to go ahead and go outside,” he said. “The power of the funnel cloud was amazing."

He said he had no idea a storm was coming until he saw it with his own eyes.

But now, his YouTube video showing a street-level view of the massive tornado plowing through Newcastle and Moore stands as an iconic record of the day’s event.

“I’ve talked to so many people today I can’t even count ,” he said.

Related:

• Monster tornado deals death, destruction in Oklahoma
• Children found drowned in tornado-flattened school
• Video: Timelapse – nightmare in the suburbs
• Slideshow: Tornadoes ravage Plains
• What you're seeing: Videos, images from ground
• Six of the worst twisters in U.S. history
• Curse or coincidence? Scientists study Tornado Alley’s past, future
• How to help tornado victims

The full extent of the destruction caused by the enormous tornado that ripped through Oklahoma was still being determined as night fell on Monday.  At least 51 people were killed, including seven children at an elementary school. Entire blocks of homes were flattened. At one hospital alone 85 patients, including 65 children, were being treated for injuries. And many were still missing. Here's a look at how Monday's horrific storm compares to some of the deadliest tornadoes in U.S. history:

Joplin, Mo. - May 22, 2011

Julie Denesha

Destroyed homes and debris cover the ground as a second storm moves in on May 23, 2011 in Joplin, Mo.

Peak winds, roaring over 200 miles per hour, destroyed the Missouri town, killing 162 people and causing an estimated $2.8 billion in damage, according to the National Weather Service. The Weather Channel's severe weather expert Greg Forbes estimates more than 17,000 people were affected. Nearly two years later, the town is still rebuilding.

Tuscaloosa, Ala. - April 27, 2011

Marvin Gentry/Reuters

An aerial view shows extensive damage to homes in the path of tornadoes in Tuscaloosa, Ala., April 28, 2011.

The F4 tornado killed 65 during a record-setting day when 200 twisters spun through the Southeast. The spring and summer of 2011 was one of the most active, deadly and destructive periods of tornado activity in U.S. history. That year there were a reported 551 fatalities and $28 billion in damages, according to the Almanac.

Worcester, Mass. - June 9, 1953

Boston Globe / Boston Globe via Getty Images

Shortly after the tornado struck in Worchester, Mass. The storm shattered homes at left and piled debris in the street.

Areas outside the Midwest are not immune from tornadoes. In 1953 a cyclone tore through Massachusetts and killed 90, making it the worst in New England history.

Tupelo, Miss./Gainesville, Ga. - April 5 and 6, 1936

Hall County Library System via AP

Offices along South Main Street in Gainesville following three tornadoes that touched down in the early morning of April 6, 1936.

Two tornadoes merged over Gainesville, Ga., just northeast of Atlanta, on April 6, 1936. The twisters came just one day after a tornado took more than 200 lives in Tupelo, Miss. Overall, the two-day death toll was 454.

"Tri-State Tornado" - March 18, 1925

Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Minnie (left) and Rose Hawkins sit amid the wreckage of their home in Murphysboro, Ill., in the wake of the tri-state tornado in March 1925.

The deadliest tornado in American history ripped through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, killing 747 people. Particularly affected was  Murphysboro, Ill., where a whopping 234 were killed, according to The Weather Channel.

St. Louis, Mo. - May 27, 1896

J.C. Strauss/St. Louis Public Library Archive

Children stand in the street near Eighth and Rutger in St. Louis after it was hit by a tornado on May 27, 1896.

The tornado hit downtown St. Louis, crossed the Mississippi River and slammed through East St. Louis. It killed 255 and caused $2.54 billion in damage, when adjusted for inflation. The storm was the costliest twister in U.S. history before Joplin.

Related:

• Monster tornado deals death, destruction in Oklahoma
• Children found drowned in tornado-flattened school
• Video: Timelapse – nightmare in the suburbs
• Slideshow: Tornadoes ravage Plains
• 'Oh my God!': KFC cook records dramatic footage of monster tornado
• What you're seeing: Videos, images from ground
• Curse or coincidence? Scientists study Tornado Alley’s past, future
• How to help tornado victims

This story was originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 10:49 PM EDT

Related:
'Major damage' as huge tornado slams Oklahoma

Just call him Python Dundee.

A Miami man pulled an 18-foot Burmese python out of roadside brush and wrestled with it for 10 minutes before cutting its head off with a knife.

The 128-pound specimen turned out to be the biggest Burmese python ever captured in Florida, besting the previous record by more than a foot, wildlife officials said.

"I was pretty exhausted and I didn't want to get bit," Jason Leon, 23, said of the decapitation that ended his struggle with the massive constrictor.

For his trouble, Leon got thanks from the the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, which considers Burmese pythons an invasive species that wreaks havoc on the state's ecosystem.

"I would think a snake of that size could kill a very large animal," said Carli Segelson, a commission spokeswoman. "It could kill a deer, so a person would be comparable in size to that."

Leon, a college student studying marine biology, said he was riding ATVs with friends in a rural area on May 11 when one of them spotted about three feet of snake sticking out of some brush.

Leon, who used to keep snakes, had never seen a python in the wild and decided to get up close and personal with this one. It wasn't until he yanked him out that he realized how big it was.

As he held it by the neck, the female wrapped around his leg once, then twice and then headed for his waist. He kept grappling with it until he became worried it might sink its razor-sharp teeth into him.

A friend handed him a nine-inch knife and he sunk it into the snake, he said.

Two days later, Leon called wildlife officials, who took the snake and confirmed it was a record-setter. He agreed to donate the skeleton but has been promised the skin, which he plans to tan and put on his living room wall.

Officials said they are grateful the python is no longer roaming the wild and that Leon was not hurt.

"Anytime people are dealing with wildlife, we recommend they use common sense," Segelson said. "If you're going to approach a Burmese python of this size, you should have an understanding of what it takes to euthanize it."

Bryan Terry / THE OKLAHOMAN

Jerry Dirks, at right, hugs her friend Earlene Langley after a tornado hit Dirks' home just south of Carney Okla., on Sunday, May 19, 2013. Dirks was in her cellar at the time the tornado hit.

By Suzanne Choney, Contributing Writer, NBC News

The loss of life and stunning devastation in Oklahoma City suburbs after a monster tornado ripped through the area are heart-wrenching. But within hours, relief organizations were getting out the message on how to help.

American Red Cross
The Red Cross has set up shelters in various communities. You can donate to the Red Cross Disaster Relief fund here, and the organization also suggests giving blood at your local hospital or blood bank.

If you want to send a $10 donation to the Disaster Relief fund via text message, you can do so by texting the word REDCROSS to 90999. As in the case with other donations via mobile, the donation will show up on your wireless bill, or be deducted from your balance if you have a prepaid phone. You need to be 18 or older, or have parental permission, to donate this way. (If you change your mind, text the word STOP to 90999.)

Phone: 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767); for Spanish speakers, 1-800-257-7575; for TDD, 1-800-220-4095.

Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief
This organization says donations will "go straight to help those in need providing tree removal services, laundry services and meals to victims of disasters." 

It is requesting monetary donations (It says clothing is NOT needed). For more information, and to donate, visit Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief's website.

You can send checks to: BGCO, Attn: Disaster Relief, 3800 N. May Ave., Oklahoma City, OK., 73112.

Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is organizing disaster response units to serve hard-hit areas in central Oklahoma, including Moore, where it is sending mobile kitchens that can serve meals to 2,500 people a day, and to South Oklahoma City.

Supporters can donate online via the organization's website, SalvationArmyUSA.org. You can also text the word STORM to 80888 to make a $10 donation via cellphone.

If you want to send a check, the Salvation Army asks that you put the words "Oklahoma Tornado Relief" on the check, and mail it to: The Salvation Army, P.O. Box 12600, Oklahoma City, OK., 73157.

Phone:  1-800-SAL-ARMY (1-800-725-2769).

United Way of Central Oklahoma
A disaster relief fund is being activated as of May 21 so that individuals can specifically donated to tornado relief-and-recovery efforts, the organization says on its site.

"Financial contributions are the best way to help unless otherwise requested." Donations can be made online at

United Way of Central Oklahoma’s Disaster Relief Fund is open.  Donations may be made online here. Checks, with a notation of "May Tornado Relief" can also be sent to the United Way of Central Oklahoma, P.O. Box 837, Oklahoma City, OK , 73101.

Feeding America
Through its network of more than 200 food banks, Feeding America, whose mission is to "feed America's hungry through a nationwide network of member food banks," says it will deliver truckloads of food, water and supplies to communities in need, in Oklahoma, and will also "set up additional emergency food and supply distribution sites as they are needed." You can donate online here.

Phone: 1-800-910-5524.

Operation USA
The international relief group, based in Los Angeles, says it is "readying essential material aid — emergency, shelter and cleaning supplies" to help Oklahoma's community health organizations and schools recover.

You can donate online here. You can also give a $10 donation by texting the word AID to 50555. Checks should be sent to: Operation USA, 7421 Beverly Blvd., PH, Los Angeles, CA 90036

Phone: 1-800-678-7255.

Devin Coldewey also contributed to this report.

Related:

• Monster tornado deals death, destruction in Oklahoma
• Children found drowned in tornado-flattened school
• Video: Timelapse – nightmare in the suburbs
• Slideshow: Tornadoes ravage Plains
• 'Oh my God!': KFC cook records dramatic footage of monster tornado
• What you're seeing: Videos, images from ground
• Six of the worst twisters in U.S. history
• Curse or coincidence? Scientists study Tornado Alley’s past, future

Sue Ogrocki / AP

A child is pulled from the rubble of the Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla., and passed along to rescuers after Monday's tornado.

Seven children were found drowned at a tornado-flattened elementary school where rescuers were searching through the night for survivors as parents kept a heart-breaking vigil, officials said.

The students killed at Plaza Towers Elementary School were among at least 51 lives claimed by the monster twister that laid to Moore, Okla.

Several children and staffers were pulled alive from the ruins of Plaza Towers in Moore after the building took a direct hit Monday afternoon.

A little girl was lifted out by rescuers, while a small boy was carried to a triage area by a woman whose face was streaked with dirt and etched with worry.

Sue Ogrocki / AP

A woman carries an injured child to a triage center near the Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla.,

In another image captured by an Associated Press photographer, a crowd of firefighters worked to remove a woman — her hair and clothes covered in dust and bits of debris — from the pile.

Those hopeful scenes were soon followed by devastating news as the Oklahoma City Medical Examiner's Office confirmed seven students were found dead in a pool of water.

It was unclear if any other children were killed or trapped alive.

Hysterical parents who had converged on the sprawling pile of broken concrete and twisted metal were later taken to a church to await word on the fate of their youngsters.

“Our hearts are just broken for the parents,” Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin said at the briefing.

“Our prayers are with you. We are working as quickly as we can to get through the debris and answer some questions about where loved ones are.”

The funnel cloud slammed two schools — Plaza Towers and Briarwood Elementary. There were no reports of casualties from Briarwood, although the building was heavily damaged.

At Plaza Towers, the fourth, fifth and sixth grades were evacuated to a church about a quarter-mile away from the 440-student school before the tornado touched down.

Students in kindergarten through third grade sheltered in place, according to NBC station KFOR. Some of those students had been in a hallway when the twister struck, others in bathrooms.

BING / Microsoft Corp., Steve Gooch / AP

Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla., before and after Monday's tornado hit.

"I had to hold on to the wall to keep myself safe because I didn't want to fly away in the tornado," one girl told the station.

James Rushing, who lives across the street, ran to the school to take shelter, thinking the building would be safer than his own home.

"About two minutes after I got there, the school started coming apart," he told The Associated Press.

The twister — deemed at least an EF4, the second-highest strength, by the National Weather Service — tore the roof off the building and knocked down its walls.

A truck that was tossed through the air landed in the spot where the school's main office would have been, KFOR reported. Books were scattered across pancaked slabs of concrete.

A crying man described to a reporter how he and others pulled a car off a teacher in the front of the building and found three children she had shielded with her body.

"Good job, teach," the man said, his voice choked with emotion.

A sixth-grade teacher told KFOR she laid on top of several children in a restroom to protect them from winds that may have topped 200 mph, and all survived.

Officials said search and rescue efforts would continue through the night.

Related:

• Monster tornado deals death, destruction in Oklahoma
• Video: Timelapse – nightmare in the suburbs
• Slideshow: Tornadoes ravage Plains
• 'Oh my God!': KFC cook records dramatic footage of monster tornado
• What you're seeing: Videos, images from ground
• Six of the worst twisters in U.S. history
• Curse or coincidence? Scientists study Tornado Alley’s past, future
• How to help tornado victims

This story was originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 7:02 PM EDT

Sleepy Hollow High School via AP

Andrea Rebello, as seen in this image from from the 2010 Sleepy Hollow High School yearbook.

Patrol officers confronted with a hostage situation are taught to keep their distance if possible, set up a perimeter and wait for negotiators and SWAT teams to arrive.

That scenario has a high success rate: FBI data show that in the vast majority of these volatile cases, the victim is released or rescued unharmed.

Tragically, that's not how it unfolded early Friday on Long Island when, police say, a home-invasion robber holding a Hofstra University student at gunpoint came face-to-face with a cop who fired eight times, killing the suspect and his captive, 21-year-old Andrea Rebello.

The incident is still under investigation with many details unknown, but experts in police tactics say the chance for a peaceful resolution diminished the moment police crossed the threshold of the Uniondale, N.Y., home and set eyes on ex-con Dalton Smith.

Nassau County Police Department via AP

Dalton Smith, seen here in an undated police photo, was holding Andrea Rebello hostage when police confronted him and shot him and her dead.

"Once they're confronting a suspect with a gun, they have two options: back out and call SWAT or engage in negotiation or deadly force with the suspect," said Stuart Meyers of the police-training firm OpTac. "You can't really second-guess their decision."

A key question will be why they decided to go inside the house.

At a press conference over the weekend, Nassau County police said the two officers who first arrived on the scene had no idea a hostage was involved.

They were dispatched after one of the home's residents, sent out by the robber to get money from a cash machine, dialed 911.

When they arrived, Smith allegedly ordered Andrea's twin, Jessica, to answer the door and say everything was fine. Instead, she ran from the home, screaming, "He's got a gun."

When the officers entered they found Smith, along with Andrea and a male student. The male managed to get away, but the gunman kept the young woman in a headlock, training his gun on her as he tried to back out a rear door.

"When he realizes there is a police officer behind a wall in the hallway, he now moves her even closer to the front of his body," police Lt. John Azzata told reporters.

Then Smith pointed his gun at one of the officers, who fired eight rounds, Azzata said.

One shot hit Rebello in the head, killing her. Her godfather, Henry Santos, told the Associated Press the news she was struck down by a police bullet was a "second shock" for the grieving family.

David Klinger, a former officer and expert on police-involved shootings, said investigators will want to find out exactly what the officer who pulled the trigger knew before entering.

If he believed the only person inside was the gunman, there may have been no reason to go in without heavy backup, he said. If he suspected someone was being held at gunpoint, waiting for negotiators might have been more prudent.

But, Klinger noted, if he knew both the suspect and victims were in the house but was unsure of what was happening, going through the door could have been the right move.

"Let's say there's an armed robber in the house and a woman hiding in the closet ... if I can get in there and help this woman, then I do it," said Klinger, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

In this case, it's unclear if the 911 caller, the dispatcher, the officers themselves or a combination of all three added to the confusion.

Experts agreed that once the cops were inside and saw there was a hostage, their options were severely limited.

Despite the terrible outcome, the officer who fired — who has 20 years of law-enforcement experience — broke no laws in using deadly force and may not have violated police guidelines.

"When a gun is pointed at your face, second-guessing goes out the window," said Charles Key, former head of firearms training for the Baltimore Police Department and a consultant in police-involved shootings.

"Officers are trained to fire as many shots as necessary," Key said. "And you can fire eight rounds in less than two seconds."

Unlike tactical units who fire 50,000 practice rounds a year, a patrol officer usually has firearms training just twice a year, he said. In Uniondale, cops with the extra training were on their way but didn't get there before Rebello and Smith were dead.

The officer who shot Rebello is on sick leave. Law-enforcement trainers said it's impossible to predict if he will return to active duty. Even cops who kill criminals are sometimes too shaken to think about firing their gun again.

As police and prosecutors try to determine what missteps -- if any -- were made, no one will be trying harder to find answers than the cop who fired the eight shots, Key said

"This officer is going to second-guess himself until it eats him alive," he said.

A teenage girl in Florida faces criminal charges for an alleged sexual relationship with a 15-year-old female student in a case the defendant’s family says stems from anti-gay prejudice.

Kaitlyn Hunt, 18, has been charged with two felony counts of “lewd and lascivious battery of a child 12 to 16 years old” related to conduct with a minor she met while they were both students at Sebastian River High School in Sebastian, Fla., according to an Indian River County Sheriff's Office arrest affidavit obtained by NBC News.

The younger girl's parents pressed charges against Hunt earlier this year, according to Thomas Raulen of the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office.

But Kelley Hunt Smith, Kaitlyn's mother, said in a statement on Facebook that 15-year-old's parents “were out to destroy my daughter” because “they feel like my daughter 'made' their daughter gay.”

Police have not identified the minor or her parents.

According to the arrest affidavit, Hunt told investigators that she began dating the girl last November, when she was just 14. By December, the affidavit says, the two girls were involved in a sexual relationship.

In a statement uploaded to Facebook, Smith said that her daughter’s friendship with the underage girl began when they were both players on the school basketball team and was at first platonic, but the two “eventually expressed their affection for one another in intimate ways.”

Smith said that when the girls’ basketball coach found out about the relationship, she booted Hunt from the team, and then contacted the younger girl’s parents. They pressed charges in February, according to Raulen.

In her statement, Smith said that an Indian River County judge originally ruled Hunt was not “any threat at all” and could remain at school — but the unidentified girl’s parents appealed to the local school board and had Hunt removed from Sebastian River High School.

School district officials did not return a request for comment Monday afternoon.

Authorities arrested Hunt at her family’s home in February, but she was later released on bail, according to Indian River County Sheriff’s Office records.

The state attorney’s office has offered Hunt a plea deal that includes recommendations for two years of “community control” — a variant of house arrest in which Hunt would be permitted to work as well as attend school and church – followed by one year of probation, according to Indian River County State Attorney Bruce Colton.

Hunt’s family has launched a social media campaign in her defense, Smith told NBC affiliate WPTV on Sunday.

“I just put our story out there on Friday,” Smith said. “I wanted people to know what was going on.”

“Free Kate,” a public Facebook support page started by Hunt’s family, had amassed over 20,000 members as of Monday afternoon while a petition on Change.org addressed to the Indian River County State Attorney's Office had nearly 70,000 signatures.

Colton, said the signatures did not make much difference saying, "The law is the law."