Dunnellon Middle School faced heightened security Wednesday after a 12-year-old threatened a school shooting, officials said.
School administrators told Marion County Sheriff’s Office school resource deputies Tuesday at about 4:30 p.m. that a threat was made, which would affect school Wednesday, according to an MCSO press release. Deputies investigated and found a threat written on the inside of a textbook by the student, whose name was not released.
“I planned a school shooting,” she wrote. “It’s going to happen on 3-29-17.”
When deputies interviewed her and her mother on Wednesday, she admitted to writing the note in an effort to “be cool,” according to the press release. Deputies determined she was not a threat to the school.
The girl was arrested on a charge of disruption of school function. The student will also be placed in an alternative school and won’t be allowed to return to the middle school’s campus, said Kevin Christian, a Marion County Public Schools spokesperson.
Christian said parents were notified of the incident Wednesday night when the school’s principal sent an automated voicemail to students’ homes.
“In this day in age, we have to take everything seriously,” he said. “If you do this, you will get in trouble. We don’t tolerate this kind of behavior.”
Contact Meryl Kornfield at mkornfield@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @MerylKornfield
