Messages shared among several students on Snapchat in March were reported to Eastside High School and Alachua County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday for threats of a school shooting. Parents were informed by school officials Friday.
The messages were shared in a closed group of students, according to ACSO public information officer Lt. Brett Rhodenizer. A threat made by one student read “shot up the school,” assumed by authorities to be misspelled, and meant to say “shoot up the school.”
The message was shared with photographs of at least two students with guns. The photographs were date-stamped late March. The guns were later determined to be BB guns.
Two students were charged via the State Attorney’s Office under statute 836.10. The statute prohibits written threats to kill, bodily injure others or conduct a mass shooting. Students involved are being disciplined, according to Alachua County Public Schools spokeswoman Jackie Johnson.
Lt. Rhodenizer said that while the investigation is ongoing, there is no immediate threat. Deputies and school officials were able to identify the students involved and deemed that they did not have the means to carry out the threat that day.
Lt. Rhodenizer stressed the importance of parents supervising their child’s mobile activities.
“These are teenagers, children, utilizing a messaging platform,” Rhodenizer said. “Parents, know what’s on your kid’s phone and monitor that content.”
The “school guardian” bill, SB 7030, which would allow in-classroom teachers to volunteer for gun training to have a gun on campus as an added security measure, was passed by Florida Senate in April. Alachua County will not be participating in the program, according to Johnson.
“Some of the folks involved thought it was a joke. We can’t afford to handle anything as a joke,” Rhodenizer said.
