5 Duval students arrested for threatening schools, the youngest 11 years old

Five Jacksonville students have been arrested for making threats to do harm against public schools since school began last month, Sheriff T.K. Waters announced on Wednesday.

Three of those arrested are only 11, 12 and 13 years old, police said.

The 11-year-old, a boy, told River City Science Academy classmates in a group chat not to come to school on Aug. 23 “unless you want 15 pounds of lead added to you at an extremely fast rate,” Waters said. He is charged with written threat to do harm.

The 12-year-old is a student at IDEA River Bluff charter school, next to Jacksonville University. He posted on Instagram Sept. 9 that he would “shoot up the school,” Waters said. He was charged with sending a written threat to commit a mass shooting.

And a 13-year-old girl who attends IDEA Bassett charter school on the Northside made an Instagram threat: “Don’t come to school tomorrow if you want to live.” She is charged with sending a written threat to kill, Waters said.

“I don’t do this lightly. This is not a light thing for me. You heard the ages of the kids,” Waters said. “Do not, under any circumstance, in any school, charter school, online, make a threat to shoot up our schools. We are not going to sit back and allow you to make that threat. We are going to act on it.”

Two non-charter public school students were also arrested on Tuesday by school district police on charges of making threats against their schools, Superintendent Chris Bernier said. No details on them were initially released, and questions emailed to a district spokesperson were not immediately returned.

The superintendent asked parents to have “difficult conversations” with their children.

“There are certain things that you should never say in an airport as you approach security,” he said. “And similarly, you should never write or state a threat to harm a school, student or person in our community.”

A number of threats have been made against schools nationwide in the week after the deadly Sept. 4 mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Barrow County, Georgia, outside Atlanta.

Colt Gray, 14, was charged in the deaths of two students and two teachers and shootings of several others there. His father, Colin Gray, also faces second-degree murder charges for providing his son with a semi-automatic rifle, police said.

A day after the Barrow County mass shooting, a Florida teen was charged after a threat came in to shoot up a school, which was reported to the National Alliance on Mental Illness’ emergency and suicide prevention line. Hotline staff contacted the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, and an investigation led to Polk County’s George Jenkins High School in Lakeland. That’s where deputies found a 16-year-old football player lifting weights at the school and arrested and charged him with making a false report concerning the use of a firearm.

Waters said he does not believe the Duval County threats were copycats of any other incidents, but police are “paying very close attention” to the fact that the five happened in a short amount of time.

“People understand that you are not supposed to do that. We are letting them know that we are not going to sit back, we are not going to take it,” Waters said. “We see what happens around the country, and what just happened in Georgia. We don’t want it happening in Jacksonville.”

Waters said his department has a zero tolerance policy on those making threats against schools and will arrest “no matter if the perpetrator is 90 or 10.” And he said it does not matter if the threats were made online or paper, out loud or via text messaging.

And if a threat rises to the level of a crime, Bernier said the school district will “absolutely pursue criminal consequences as well.”

“These consequences are life changing but necessary in order to protect the health and safety of all of our employees, and all of our students,” Bernier said. “Academics is always our primary goal, but students cannot learn if they don’t feel safe.”

Waters and Bernier were joined by Chief Assistant State Attorney Adair Newman and School Police Chief Jackson Short to announce the recent arrests.

“Making threats, even if it is in jest, can have serious consequences,” the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice states. “Youth, parents, and teachers are also encouraged to report any and all threats they see or hear. They can notify law enforcement or report a threat anonymously through Florida’s FortifyFL App .”

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