CORAL SPRINGS, FLA. (WSVN) - Officials are investigating after J.P. Taravella High School and Coral Springs High School both received threats.
A social media threat placed the J.P. Taravella campus on a modified lockdown.
According to Coral Springs Police, J.P. Taravella students began to spread a message taken from social media, at around 8:45 p.m., Monday. Students said a fellow classmate claimed he would bring a gun to school later this week.
The message read, “Ok your gonna meet me on the side of the 800 building and imma slide you your gun and a mask at 9:10 you and everyone else in on the plan is gonna shoot up the school we only have 60 seconds so 45 seconds to shoot everyone and 15 more seconds to grab someone else give them the gun and blame it on them and [hop] the fence and run.”
Coral Springs Police arrived at J.P. Taravella early Tuesday morning, at around 5 a.m. Police found the student who made the social media threat and said he claimed that it was simply a prank, and there was never any intention to bring a firearm on campus.
As students arrived for class, police said they added extra officers at the school as a precaution. J.P. Taravella officials also put the high school on a modified lockdown, which has since been lifted.
“The kids texted me, and they said that they were threatening to shoot up the school, like there were gonna be active shooters in the school,” said mother Simone Raysor, “so after that, I received a call saying that the school is on lockdown. I was on my way to come get them. I couldn’t get the kids out of school because they were on lockdown, which I understand. After, they called back, and they said OK, it’s over.”
Parents were seen pulling their children out of class earlier, despite police debunking the social media threat.
Raysor said that after the lockdown was lifted, her child texted her that the shooting may still happen based on yet another message that was circulated among the students.
“My kid sent me another text message, saying that now that the lockdown is over – when it’s time to switch classes – we’re gonna get the guns, and we’re gonna do it again,” said Raysor, “so I rushed out here to go get my kids out of school because I have no idea what’s going on. I have no idea what’s going on in these kids’ heads. This social media thing is going too far.”
Police said the student responsible for the J.P. Taravella threat will be disciplined by the school.
Later, Tuesday afternoon, police responded to another threat at Coral Springs High School. Police are still looking for the person responsible for that threat.
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