Police: Minor in Texas was behind false threat at J.P. Taravella High

A minor living in Texas was behind the call in February that put J.P. Taravella High School in Coral Springs on a Code Red lockdown for hours as police searched for an alleged armed student.

On Feb. 23, Coral Springs Police received a call from someone who claimed to be a student at the high school and said another student there was armed, according to police. Officers searched the school twice that afternoon, going room to room, and found the student who was reported as being armed, but he had no gun or other weapon.

The minor who made the false threat was arrested by Irving Police Department officers in Irving, Texas, Coral Springs Police announced Monday. Officials did not identify the minor or say what charges he or she is facing.

Authorities found two videos posted online that confirmed “the call was a false complaint designed to create chaos and maliciously harass the student” who was allegedly armed, police said.

Officers identified the person who made the videos, and the suspect’s internet activity led them to a home in Irving, Texas.

It is unclear whether the minor has been transferred to Broward County.

Making a false threat involving a school is a felony in Florida.

In South Florida, several minor students have been arrested for making threats of violence against schools in recent months, and such threats had noticeably increased after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.

A 12-year-old girl was arrested in December for posting threatening messages on the social media platform Snapchat, which included a “death list with student names” and said that “students were not safe and that they would be killed on Monday,” the Broward Sheriff ’s Office said in December.

In February, a 13-year-old girl who attends Renaissance Charter School in Pembroke Pines was arrested after another student posted threatening messages toward students and staff online, impersonating her. She was cleared, and the 12-year-old girl who wrote the posts was arrested.

And in June, a false report of an active shooter at the Broward College campus in Davie sparked numerous frantic 911 calls from people who were concerned about their loved ones on campus.