Boy faces judge after threat to ‘shoot up’ school Reactions ratcheted up in wake of Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting

The 11-year-old boy looked nervous facing a judge Tuesday, realizing the trouble he was in for threatening to “shoot up” his middle school.

The child wore a collared, button-down shirt and spoke in a soft but clear voice when Broward Circuit Judge Carlos Rebollo asked him to spell his name.

He was in his first-period class Monday when he made the “shoot-up-theschool” remark at Walter C. Young Middle School in Pembroke Pines, police said. A nearby student asked if he was serious, and he replied, “maybe, maybe not,” police said.

The judge gave the boy a stern look as he ordered him to 21 days of house arrest.

February’s shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School has intensified official reaction to threats that, in other times, might have been handled without involving law enforcement. It was the third time in recent days and the fourth time this month that

a student was charged with the second-degree felony of making a false report concerning the use of a firearm in a violent manner.

“The main thing we want is for everyone to be aware of what’s happening — the potential victims, the school administrators, the kids’ families, everyone in a position to determine the seriousness of the threat,” said prosecutor Maria Schneider, who heads the Broward State Attorney’s Office juvenile unit.

The 11-year-old boy’s punishment is consistent with how Broward courts deal with such threats, according to both prosecutors and the Broward Public Defender’s Office.

Prosecutors look at the age of the accused, whether the person has prior offenses and the means to carry out the threats, Schneider said.

A mental health screening is also typical.

In cases where the risk is low, prosecutors often opt to send the child to a diversion program, which provides counseling and education and avoids a criminal record.

The school’s discipline is handled separately.

Lawyers said the 11-year-old from Walter C. Young was suspended for 10 days.

The public defender’s spokesman, Gordon Weekes, declined to comment because his office also represents the confessed shooter in the Parkland school massacre, Nikolas Cruz.

The police investigated Monday’s threat in Pembroke Pines after a student notified school administrators. After the boy’s mother went to the school, the boy admitted making the statements and said he realized it scared his classmates.

The boy, who didn’t have a weapon, said “he made a mistake, due to being frustrated over his school lessons,” police spokeswoman Amanda Conwell said in an email.

It remains possible the child will emerge from this incident without a criminal record, Schneider said.

The Sun Sentinel is withholding his name because of his age.

The boy’s aunt, who accompanied him to court, told the judge his parents were unavailable Tuesday afternoon. She declined to comment outside the courtroom.

Rebollo ordered a psychological evaluation and learned from the boy’s aunt that there are no firearms in his home.

After Rebollo learned the boy will be supervised by his parents and other family, he said, “I don’t think there’s a need for electronic monitoring.”

Louisiana attorney David Utter is a former juvenile justice policy director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a national civil rights group.

“To bring the heavy hammer of the juvenile justice system down in a case like this strikes me as extremely short-sighted and unnecessarily punitive,” Utter said. “In the name of protecting the community from an expressed threat, which is an understandable goal, we risk missing something important — this is most likely a cry for help or attention.”

Schneider said the community’s safety and security needs demand that each threat is taken seriously.

“Kids are going to say stupid things that they don’t really mean,” she said. “But we don’t want to miss an actual threat because we’re assuming it’s a cry for attention.”

Following a spate of similar incidents, Pembroke Pines police on Monday — in announcing an arrest Sunday — urged parents to start conversations at home with their children to remind them of the potentially serious consequences of making false threats.

Last week, a 17-year-old student told classmates at Pembroke Pines Charter High School that they would get to “live another day” because he forgot his gun in his car. No weapon was found.