Teen Girl Arrested After Making Online Posts Threatening Violence at Multiple Schools

Marina Demidiuk/iStock

A 14-year-old girl was arrested after posting threats of violence at several Broward County, Florida, schools, officials said Sunday.

The Broward School District shared in a statement that the “social media threat posted this weekend against specific Broward County Public Schools has been neutralized,” adding that “There is no safety concern to any of our campuses.”

The threat was made Saturday afternoon on social media. The student was arrested Saturday evening for making written threats to kill or conduct a mass shooting, the Broward Sheriff’s Office shared in a statement.

The sheriff's office said the Lauderdale Lakes girl posted several threats on Instagram, including a list of schools across the county that would be targeted and additional threats of a school shooting or other acts of violence.

Several schools in different cities were listed by name. WSVN showed images of the threatening posts, which listed 11 elementary, middle and high schools and listed a specific time on Monday. One image broadcast by WSVN showed a hand holding a gun.

Several people saw the threats and reported them to authorities via Fortify Florida, an app for reporting potentially dangerous activity, school board member Debbi Hixon said Sunday in a telephone interview. She said the threat was reported to her and she reported it as well.

The sheriff’s office was immediately notified and detectives from its Threat Management Unit and Real Time Crime Center, alongside police from Fort Lauderdale, Plantation, and the school district began investigating the threats.

The girl was taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center, the sheriff's office said. She faces charges of making written threats to kill/conduct a mass shooting; threat to throw, project, place or discharge any destructive device; and unlawful use of a two-way communication device.

The threats were taken seriously.

Hixon said all such threats need to be taken seriously. “We have to investigate them and find them and have to have severe consequences so they understand this is not a joke.”

The sheriff’s office explained in its Saturday statement that statements like the once made in this case are crimes under Florida law. “Whether it is said aloud, written in text or posted on social media, an individual can be charged with a felony for written threats to kill, do bodily injury, or conduct a mass shooting.”

Hixon said the system worked as it should in this case but said the number of threats of violence are a serious problem. “Unfortunately it is part of the world we live in right now,” she said.

“Frustrating is not even the right word. It’s disheartening. It’s maddening. It’s disgusting that our students, our staff, our community in general have to live with this anxiety on this constant basis,” Hixon said. “How will you ever feel safe and comfortable in your school if they (threats) are made every day?”

Hixon lost someone in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

On Friday, the day before the threat to the group of schools, another threat was directed at another school, she said.

Hixon, who was a career educator, is the widow of Chris Hixon, who was among the 17 people killed in the February 14, 2018, massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where he was athletic director. After his murder, she ran for and was elected to the school board.

The threats take a toll. “I think for me anyway, there’s still that little bit of anxiety in the back of your head. I’m sure some students and parents are going to feel that way sending their students to that list of schools that were there.”

Hixon said she would like to see greater efforts toward reducing the situations that drive some people to make threats. “We need to do a better job of identifying when students get to that point,” she said, adding that students need to be given more training and tools on how not to allow bullying and harassment to overcome their lives so much that they feel moved to make threats.

Those who are bullied and harassed need to get better tools to be able to say, “‘I should not be giving you all of my power because you say something mean.’ And that’s really what needs to change,” she said.

The notification app is one way schools are using to combat tragedy.

“How could we do a better job as a society, as a School Board, in identifying those situations so that we can resolve it before it comes to what’s landed in our laps now? I don’t even know if that’s possible, but it’s 100% what I’ve been thinking the last couple of days,” Hixon said.

“We have to do something different,” she said. “We’re in a crisis, and it’s becoming normalized. Students are like ‘Oh yeah, another threat.’ One day it’s not just going to be an idle threat as we already know.”

Hixon said students aren’t the only ones who can become overwhelmed by criticism and harassment. “Adults get wrapped into that as well,” she said.

“It’s more than a Broward County issue. It’s a national society issue. But we have to start somewhere,” she said.

Hixon said Fortify Florida was put in place after the Stoneman Douglas massacre. FortifyFL can be downloaded and is already on all school laptops, Hixon said. People who see something can report it via the app. The sheriff's office also recommended a different downloadable app, SaferWatch.

-by Anthony Man, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

©2024 South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Visit sun-sentinel.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.