‘Joke’ school threats are on the rise

After Parkland shooting, teens land felonies for false reports

It’s like a contagion that peaked after the Parkland school shooting and showed some signs of dying down. That is, until two new cases cropped up within the past week of threats being made against a school.

A 13-year-old boy on Sunday threatened to “shoot up” Pines Middle School via an Instagram chat group.

Last week, it was a 17-year-old boy telling his classmates at Pembroke Pines Charter High School that they would get to “live another day” because he forgot his gun in his car.

Both teens chalked it up to “a joke.” And each landed a felony charge of making a false report concerning the use of a weapon in a violent manner — a new means in Florida of combating pranksters, copycats and those with ill

intent.

Such school threats used to happen “from time to time,” but the number of local incidents has shot up since the mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas, said Maria Schneider, supervising prosecutor in the juvenile division of the Broward State Attorney’s Office.

“It’s a big problem and they definitely have been happening more,” Schneider said.

In Palm Beach County, past cases include a former student at Spanish River High in Boca, who admitted posting a Snapchat message that read: “On my way School shooter.” In May, deputies arrested a student at Olympic Heights High, west of Boca, who also made a threat on Snapchat.

It’s happening in other parts of the country, too. Just since the beginning of the current academic year students making threats of violence toward schools have been reported in Michigan, New York, Virginia, Texas and Arizona, to name a few.

Two incidents surfaced on Monday alone. Investigators near Phoenix were investigating threats of violence toward students at a high school that were posted on social media along with screenshots of a weapon. And then in Galveston, Texas, a 16-year-old boy was arrested for writing a threat on a bathroom wall.

The perpetrators are predominantly teenage boys, the threats are usually conveyed via social media — Snapchat, Instagram or Facebook — in ominous tones.

“Be ready for a lockdown.”

“I have a surprise for everyone tomorrow.”

“Don’t go to school tomorrow.”

Seventeen died in the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

Since then, there have been at least two dozen cases of students making school threats in Broward, Schneider estimates.

A school shooting occurs “and a bunch of idiot kids who just think it’s funny start posting threats,” Schneider said.

Among them, an incident in April in which a student posted a threat on YouTube under the username “Sharp Shooter.” It said: “I want to be a professional school shooter … (no sarcasm, Broward County, Florida) J.P. Taravella HS is my target, tomorrow. I’M LEGIT NOT JOKING AROUND! SPREAD MY MESSAGE !!!! ”

In August, an 18-year-old North Lauderdale girl was arrested after using Instagram to threaten to shoot up her ex-boyfriend’s school, Piper High in Sunrise.

Technology and mass communication definitely contribute to the reasons for the uptick in this sort of behavior, said Amanda Conwell, a spokeswoman for the Pembroke Pines Police Department.

“People are more aware of these threats because of the accessibility of the news media and social media,” she said. “Any communication through an electronic device, cellphone, computer, or otherwise, has a digital footprint that detectives can use to trace and verify the threat.”

And, people are fed up, Conwell said.

“People no longer are willing to accept the ‘joke’ excuse,” she said. “The majority of people have a ‘no tolerance’ viewpoint when it comes to threats of this nature.”

In that vein, Florida lawmakers last spring passed the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act.

A provision of the new law, that went into effect with the beginning of the school year, makes it illegal to post threats on social media about conducting a mass shooting or engaging in a terrorist attack.

It sets criminal penalties, if one does. Enter the second-degree felony charge the Pembroke Pines teens are now facing.

“Obviously there’s a need,” Schneider, the prosecutor said. “Every time somebody posts one of these it causes all kinds of terror and chaos.”

But criminalizing such behavior and labeling it a felony doesn’t mean teens will be locked up for it.

Sentences in juvenile court are meant to be rehabilitative not punitive, Schneider said. Meaning, a teen, depending on their history and previous contact with the law, would likely end up serving some time on probation, participating in a program and performing community service hours, she said.

Police urged parents to start conversations at home with their children cautioning them against making threats of this nature, the seriousness of such crimes and the potential for lifelong consequences.

“These are severe offenses,” Conwell said, “and any individual determined to have committed such acts will be charged accordingly.”