‘School shooter’ post tests Florida law

Questions raised on what constitutes a threat; man says nothing bad was meant

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — David Puy headed out to meet friends for dinner in West Boca. “On my way! School shooter,” he wrote in a Snapchat post with his photo.

The next day, when detectives asked about the reported threat, he admitted: “I wasn’t thinking.”

Just three months after the Parkland massacre, it also wasn’t smart, Puy’s lawyer concedes. But did the 19-yearold really commit a crime?

The case promises to have widespread implications beyond Puy’s felony prosecution. It’s become the first major test of a law strengthened partly in response to the rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High.

At issue: Just what makes a written threat illegal? And are all young people and others who make fake threats about mass shootings — it happens on a fairly regular basis — in serious trouble?

Puy claimed he meant nothing sinister, and it was true that he had no guns, no mental health struggles and no criminal history. Also, no schools were open when he posted on the social phone app.

Yet he still got charged with a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison. The 2018 law prohibits putting threats of mass shootings or terrorism in writing.

Max Schachter, whose 14-year-old son, Alex, was killed in the Parkland shooting, says the law is meant to “hold people accountable.”

“It sounds like you’re on your way to commit a school shooting,” he said of Puy’s post. “You can’t yell fire in a movie theater and, you know, tell me, ‘oh that doesn’t mean that.’ That doesn’t matter how you meant it … he should be held responsible for that.”

After trying unsuccessfully to get the charge dismissed, Puy took a plea deal for three years of probation, with no conviction to appear on his record. The judge put the punishment on hold pending a challenge now before Florida’s 4th District Court of Appeal.

As schools and communities watch for any threats of gun violence, there’s a push for zero tolerance for offenders of all ages. Not all of those charged over social media or other written threats are prosecuted or convicted, however.

A finding by a north Florida judge, in the case of a high school student’s written plans for a massacre, angered parents and others in the community, The Associated Press has reported.

Baker County Circuit Judge Gloria Walker dismissed charges against a 15-year-old sophomore who distributed portions of a sixpage “School Shooting Plan” to classmates.

He wrote last September about having nine minutes to gun down officers and as many teachers and classmates as possible.

“Some of these notes included specific dates/times that a shooting should occur, the locations on campus in which the act(s) should be carried out, and the order in which certain people should be attacked,” the Baker County sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post.

A portion of the plan, since posted publicly, reads, “Most likely there will be chaos. You will kill as much as you can before the other students or teachers notice.”

The student admitted he wrote the manifesto, but denied “having any intention of ever going through with it,” the sheriff’s office said.

But Walker concluded that prosecutors could not prove the threat violated the law, according to the AP’s reporting.

The ruling prompted a Change.org petition to oust the jurist, now with more than 2,100 signatures.

Randy Crews, a major with the Baker County sheriff’s office, highlighted the case and his agency’s disappointment during an Oct. 15 presentation to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission.

“If other judges make these rulings, then we’ve kind of taken a bunch of steps backwards instead of moving forward,” Crews said at the meeting held in an Orlando-area hotel, according to an official transcript.

So what does the 2018 law say?

It prohibits people from making threats in writing or electronically to conduct a mass shooting or act of terrorism, and posting or transmitting the threat in any manner where any other person can view the threat.

Before Parkland, the law was limited to written threats sent by someone in a letter or email directly to a specific victim, or a member of that person’s family.

The limitations of that previous law led to a 2016 decision by a Florida appellate court to throw out the conviction of a Sarasota High School student who tweeted that he “can’t wait to shoot up my school soon.”

The post on Twitter included a photo of a gun being put in a backpack.

The appeals court based in Lakeland ruled that social media threats fell outside the language in the law at that time.

So the change adopted by the Legislature fixed that gap in the law. And Puy was among the first to be charged.

The West Delray man’s attorney, Gregory Salnick, argued the Snapchat post was “vague. It’s subject to different interpretations. It doesn’t say he’s going to shoot up a school or go commit a school shooting.”

But the prosecutor said Puy’s statement, “On my way! School shooter,” is precisely what the law was intended to address.

“The Legislature did not, nor could it, create a list of phrases that would be acceptable that would indicate a ‘mass shooting’ or ‘act of terrorism,’” wrote Assistant State Attorney Michael Ryan Jr.

Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Colbath, who is now retired, refused to dismiss the charge, laying the groundwork for the plea deal and ensuing appeal.

Both sides will present arguments to a three-judge panel in West Palm Beach on March 10, with a decision expected by the summer.