Hoaxes put students, teachers further on edge after attack
A report of a gunman at North Broward Preparatory School turned out to be a false alarm, but the agony in students’ voices was real.
Four armed law enforcement officers advanced into the students’ Coconut Creek classroom Thursday morning in a formation, not yet aware whether a real threat loomed.
“Police! Everyone stay where you’re at! Everybody OK in here?” The police determined the children were safe. On cellphone video, the classroom door slams shut as the officers leave, and children are heard crying.
After Wednesday’s attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, numerous false threats are terrorizing students at other schools in South Florida. Students take cover as they watch officers’ safety sweeps of schools.
“Kids are scared,” said South Broward High student Logan Mazor, a 15-year-old freshman from Hollywood.
A post with a picture of a gunman labeled “Round 2 of Florida tomorrow” made the rounds on social media Thursday night. Mazor said that might be why there were only about 14 students in a 30-student English class Friday.
Both Thursday and Friday, students were prevented from leaving classrooms as security precautions, he said.
“It’s horrible,” he said. “But the best thing is to continue to go to school, we can fight back.”
He said friends Friday had “shaky voices, they’ve been crying from all of the events happening lately.”
South Florida law enforcement officials said Friday they are staying on top of the hoax threats, meant to capitalize on the fear after the killings in Parkland.
The Broward County Sheriff’s Office said it investigated the “Round 2” threat and the original poster was arrested in South Carolina.
Thursday at North Broward Preparatory, students and staff were evacuated as the school was searched. A sheriff’s deputy accidentally fired his gun and injured his leg. He was treated at the scene.
In Plantation, Police Chief Howard Harrison said that “we have had several” threats within two days.
While he didn’t mention specifics, he said response has been strong.
“We treat every threat at one of our schools with the highest priority,” Harrison said. “We will continue to use every resource necessary to determine whether the threat has any merit or is a hoax and will respond accordingly.”
Coral Springs police wrote on Facebook they have received “many messages about online threats at local schools.”
“We’ve investigated several complaints” although there has been “nothing credible at this time,” police spokesman Capt. Brad McKeone told the Sun Sentinel.
Some students are scared to go to school.
In Palm Beach County, school officials said the absence rate was slightly higher than normal Thursday. There was no school Friday for a scheduled teacher planning day.
No information was available Friday from the Broward school district on whether there has been a decrease in attendance. A spokesman for Miami-Dade County Public Schools said attendance “has been almost exactly on par with attendance for last year at this time.”
In Broward, Avital Stark, of Plantation, kept her son home from South Broward High School on Thursday and Friday because they were both too unnerved.
“I was too scared to send him to school,” she said of her son, Micha Stark, 14, a ninth-grader. “I just can’t imagine turning around and bringing him to school where I know there is nothing I can do to keep him safe.”
Teachers are seeing the fear, too.
Yamilis Cruz, who teaches 10th-grade English, wanted assurance from her students that they had places to hide in their classroom if there were ever a tragedy at Hallandale High School.
Her classes usually range from 25 to 30 students. Friday, her largest class had just eight students.
“It’s really sad, it’s beyond sad,” she said. “The kids are like, ‘That could have been us.’ They were crying when they heard about the shooting.”