Timber Creek High student arrested
15-year-old girl accused of making school threat
After four serious incidents at Central Florida high schools this week, law-enforcement officials have a clear message for anyone who might want to make a threat: Don’t do it. They vowed that there will be harsh consequences for perpetrators — not to mention the strain it puts on law enforcement, school leaders, students and parents.
On Thursday, Orange County deputies announced that a 15year-old Timber Creek High student was arrested after she threatened to shoot up the school today. She faces a felony charge.
“We want to make sure that families and teens are aware that this is no laughing matter,” Orange County Sheriff’s Capt. Angelo Nieves said. “This is no joke. It takes a lot of manpower to put these searches [of schools] together. We have to evacuate schools. We have to shut down communities, and we have to take law-enforcement personnel and fire department personnel away from other calls for service.”
Nieves also said the felony charge could follow students for the rest of their lives.
At Timber Creek High on Tuesday, someone wrote threatening messages on a mirror and stall in a girls’ bathroom, deputies said. The messages warned: “Don’t come to school 11-17-17” and “I’m going to shoot this [expletive] up.”
Another message said: “Blowing up this [expletive] 11-17-17.”
A female student said she’d “found the threat,” but after detectives interviewed witnesses and compared handwriting samples, they determined that girl had written the messages herself.
The teen, whom the Sentinel isn’t naming because she’s a minor, faces a felony charge of threatening to throw, project, place or discharge a destructive device. She was taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center.
This marks the fourth serious incident this week at a Central Florida high school.
On Tuesday, a 17-year-old Lake Minneola High student fatally shot himself in the school’s bus loop. That shooting prompted a lockdown as authorities cleared the school. No one else was hurt.
The next day, Lake County authorities arrested a teen after he posted a photo of a fake gun on social media saying he was going to go to Lake Minneola and “finish what was never started.”
Also Wednesday, Windermere High School was locked down for about three hours after a parent got a message saying somebody was in a bathroom with a gun. Deputies searched the school but did not find anything suspicious.
Orange County Public Schools called parents and encouraged them to talk to their children about responsible behavior.
Superintendent Barbara Jenkins took to Twitter on Thursday to warn of potential consequences. “Recently, some schools have been disrupted by pranks about impending danger,” she wrote. “This is NO laughing matter. It wastes resources and can result in suspension, expulsion or even criminal prosecution.”