An Alabama teenager who called himself a white supremacist is accused of plotting to attack classmates and a teacher with small homemade explosives, though his attorney argues the allegations are blown out of proportion and the teen never intended to hurt anyone.

Seventeen-year-old Derek Shrout is charged with attempted assault after authorities say he planned to use homemade explosives to attack fellow students at Russell County High School in eastern Alabama.

Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor says he believes the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary was a factor because the first date in the boy’s journal describing the plan was dated three days after the Connecticut killings.

Taylor says the boy told investigators he’s a white supremacist and five of the six students he named in his journal are black.