Student Made Snapchat Threat Against Sarasota High School: SCSO

Sarasota FL

06 December, 2021

12:40 PM

Description

Updated: 8:05 p.m. SARASOTA, FL — A student was arrested after posting a social media threat against Sarasota High School Friday, Assistant Principal Becky Moyer said in an email sent that night to students and their families. While the nature of the threat and the charges filed, weren't included in her email, according to the probable cause affidavit from the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office, the 15-year-old student has been charged with sending written or electronic threats to kill or do bodily injury, conduct a mass shooting, or an act of terrorism, a felony. The teen was arrested at his Sarasota home Friday around 7:30 p.m. The student, who attends Sarasota High School, skipped school Friday to work out at the Field Club's gym. While at the gym, he used his cell phone to chat with between 20 and 30 friends using Snapchat, according to the SCSO affidavit. The friends attended Sarasota and Riverview high schools. When one friend teased him for not being at school that day, the teen responded, "Do you want me to shoot up the school on Monday?" Then, he stated, "I'm leaving rn (right now) before the cops search my bag." Later in the conversation, the student said, "imma get an m4 sit in a car and say 'boutta have some fun.'" Several of his friends told him "that these posts were not good" and some screenshot the conversation, according to the probable cause affidavit. One of the friends he was chatting with told his mother, a Sarasota High School employee, about the conversation. She contacted the school resource officer Jordan Lambka, who investigated the incident and determined that threats were made. The student admitted to making the comments during a law enforcement interview with his mother present. In her email to students and families, Moyer said reporting the threat to the school was "exactly the right thing" to do. Lambka, as well as the Sarasota Police Department and the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office, responded "immediately" to the threat, she added. "They located the student and took action so that there is no threat against our school, students or staff." Sarasota County Public Schools has a zero-tolerance policy against violence and threats. "Any student making a threat will be investigated by law enforcement and possibly arrested or removed from school," the assistance principal said. Moyer also urged students "to make smart choices and think twice about posting inappropriate messages on social media." The threats made against Sarasota High School came in the wake of a deadly school shooting in Michigan. A 15-year-old student at Oxford High School killed four students and injured seven other people, including one teacher, on Nov. 30.