2 Heritage Middle School Students Charged With Making School Threats

Date Added: February 27, 2018 5:21 pm

Laura Williams
Office of Public Affairs & Media Relations

2 HERITAGE MIDDLE STUDENTS CHARGED WITH MAKING SEPARATE SCHOOL THREATS

Two Heritage Middle School students – one age 12 and one 15 – were the latest today to face criminal charges for threatening to shoot their school.

Sheriff’s deputies responded after a 15-year-old student at Heritage stated in his third-period class this morning, “I’m going to shoot up seventh period.” However, the student is picked up from school daily at 1:10 p.m., before the seventh-period class begins. Deputies interviewed the student at his home after school. He was charged with making a false report concerning the use of a firearm  (Florida Statute 790.164), a felony.

In an unrelated incident, a school resource deputy responded to Heritage this morning regarding a threat made against the school by a 12-year-old male student who was angry at another student.  It turned out the incident occurred Feb. 20 but was just reported today.

During an interview with the deputy, the 12-year-old said he was annoyed with a classmate so he said, “I’ll shoot up the school if you don’t stop.”  The student told the deputy he doesn’t have access to firearms and doesn’t want to hurt himself or anyone else.  He also was charged with making a false report, a felony.

As has been repeatedly stated since the Feb. 14  tragic school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office continues to show zero tolerance for threats and jokes about shootings, bombings and other acts of violence. Those who continue to make such statements may face the appropriate criminal charges. Parents are encouraged to talk to their children about the seriousness of making false reports at school or on social media.

Today’s incidents make the eighth and ninth cases since Feb. 16 where students face criminal charges from the VCSO after making a threat of violence at school.