CRIME

2 students arrested in W. Volusia as rumored campus threats continue

Patricio G. Balona
patricio.balona@news-jrnl.com
A student carrying this gun-shaped cellphone case caused the lockdown on Tuesday of DeLand High School. [News-Journal/Patricio G. Balona]

A threat made to T. DeWitt Taylor Middle High caused more than a quarter of its students to skip classes Tuesday and reports of a gun on campus later in the morning sent DeLand High into an hour-long lockdown, officials said.

Those incidents represented ongoing problems with threatening student behavior in Volusia County as nearly a week has passed since the Feb. 14 campus shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland that killed 17 people.

Officials said that at least 16 fake threats have been made to Volusia schools following last Wednesday’s massacre in South Florida. There have been no local acts of violence. Four students have been charged so far.

On Tuesday, the threats affected two West Volusia schools resulting in the arrests of two students and the suspension of another:

  • A 15-year-old at DeLand High seen with a pink, gun-shaped cellphone case at school Tuesday was charged with disruption of an educational institution, a misdemeanor.
  • A 14-year-old Taylor Middle High School student was suspended for 10 days for verbal threats.
  • A 13-year-old DeLeon Springs boy, a student at Taylor Middle High School, was also charged after he threatened to bring a a gun to school and shoot people because he was being bullied, sheriff's deputies said. That is a felony charge but The News-Journal is not publishing the boy's name because of his age.

According to the Volusia Sheriff's Office, the DeLeon Springs boy is the third student to be charged for making a threat against a Volusia school. A fourth student, a 20-year-old from Mainland High was taken into custody for mental evaluation last week after Daytona Beach police said he made threats on social media.

On Tuesday, for a second time in less than a week, sheriff's deputies investigated the discovery of a .22-caliber bullet in Pine Ridge High School's boys weightlifting locker room. It is not known where the bullet came from. On Thursday, two bullets were found stuck in between mats in the weight room, but no weapons were found, said sheriff's spokeswoman Laura Williams.

At Taylor High about 300 of 1,100 students were absent Tuesday after warnings circulated on social media to stay away from the school. The messages started appearing Monday night and spread fast on Tuesday. The incident prompted Principal Jeff Miller to send a telephone message to assure parents the threat was investigated and was not credible.

"We do have lower attendance at Taylor because of non-credible threats at that school," said Volusia county Schools spokeswoman Nancy Wait said.

Compared to last week, the attendance at Taylor was more noticeable, Wait said.

"Last week we had many issues that were all determined to be non-credible, but attendance was not affected overall," Wait said.

The suspended Taylor student was interviewed by deputies who determined the boy made the comment while joking during a discussion of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School killings, a report states.

“Last week, several students were talking about the Broward shooting and started joking that another student would be the one to commit a shooting at Taylor,” sheriff's spokesman Andrew Gant said. “That student replied “Maybe” and said if he did, they’d be on the list. He later explained he was just upset and didn’t mean it.”

On Tuesday morning, the Sheriff’s Office was notified about a message on Snapchat warning students not to go to school because of this student’s statements, Gant said. Monday's threat came after at least 15 other false threats were reported in Volusia County in the wake of the Parkland killings.

On Tuesday morning, students who did return from Monday's President's Day holiday reported classrooms were unusually sparse, and the student parking area was nearly empty.

The Sheriff’s Office on Monday also got a report about a student making a statement on the bus about having an older brother who’s a gang member who was going to shoot up a Deltona school. Deputies tracked down the student and she denied making any such statements, Gant said.

“She also doesn’t have any older brothers,” Gant said.

But the messages on social media among students warning one another to stay away from Taylor on Tuesday kept coming.

“Good morning, I don’t know if you’ve heard yet but everyone is advising to stay home,” one message said. “Some kid was threatening to shoot up the school and trying to bring guns on the bus.”

Another message said that a teacher was not going to school on Tuesday while another said the person who made the threat was nicknamed “Rabbit.”

In a telephone voice message to parents on Tuesday morning, Miller said the threats were only rumors.

“All threats were fully investigated by the Sheriff’s Office and none of the threats are credible,” Miller said. “Please know any threat to our school is taken extremely seriously and investigated fully. Our number one priority is to provide a safe learning environment for our students, faculty and staff.”

Miller said threats to a school can result in criminal charges and/or expulsion.

“Parents, please discuss the implications of such threats with your children and ask for their assistance in sharing with administrators, the names of any individuals making threats and spreading rumors,” Miller urged in his message. “Remember, if you See Something, Say Something! Thank you!”

As Miller dealt with the issue of students not showing up for classes at his Pierson school, some 20 miles away about 2,600 students were being locked up in their DeLand High School classrooms after reports of a student seen on campus with a pink gun.

DeLand High went into lockdown around 9:29 a.m. and the all clear was given around 10:30 a.m., according to Sheriff's Office dispatch logs.

All students remained in their classrooms, doors and gates were locked and no one was allowed to exit or enter the classrooms or campus, police said.

Students had to lie down on the floor with the lights turned out to wait for the all clear, said Amanda Hester, whose sophomore daughter texted her and her husband as the lockdown went into effect.

Police on patrol with the help of a sheriff's helicopter finally located the student with the pink cellphone case shaped like a gun when a teacher notified authorities that the student was in her class, a report states.

"The cellphone case in this incident is bright pink in color that resembles some of the novelty handguns colors offered by several gun manufacturers," said DeLand Police Chief Jason Umberger.

There was no threat to students and staff but Umberger called on parents and citizens to be more alert about students posing a threat.

"We all know that kids are going to be kids but in today's world we must be vigilant," Umberger said. "You never know. You could be saving the life of your friends."

Hester and her husband expressed concern about school officials, whom they claim lied to them when they called the school find out what was going on.

"I called the school and I was told there was a scheduled drill," said Ben Hester, who received texts from his daughter. 

After getting the principal's recorded message an hour later, Ben Hester said he called and spoke to Stephen Davenport, assistant school principal.

"I asked him why they lied to me that it was a scheduled drill and Davenport told me that it's protocol," Ben Hester said. "You don't lie to a parent."

Volusia schools Superintendent James Russell said at a press conference that the school handled the situation correctly. When a situation like occurs at a  school "it is very fluid" and the staff, the front desk staff often does not know exactly what's going on, Russell said.

"The practice is to take care of the students first and then get information out to the parents," Russell said. First you have to secure the environment at the school and then communicate factual information to the parents."

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