CORAL SPRINGS, FLA. (WSVN) - A 17-year-old boy was arrested after, police said, he trespassed into a South Florida school following his expulsion, triggering security concerns among students, parents and officers.
According to police, the teen entered Coral Springs Charter School, located at 205 N. University Drive, during a fire drill and went into a classroom with other students.
The teen was not wearing a uniform and did not have an ID. It’s unclear how he went into the school undetected.
Video recorded by a student in the classroom showed the teen standing at the front of the class and talking with other students. The school’s principal and a school resource officer then entered the classroom where the boy was arrested.
“They discovered the guy within three minutes, that was pretty impressive,” said a parent.
The principal, Gary Springer, was heard scolding the teen in the video.
“You must be crazy right now!” Springer said.
When the student started responding to the principal, Springer screamed, “Enough!”
Moments later, Springer is heard saying, “We ain’t going to see you for a while.”
7News spoke with several students at the school who said the teen was a student at the school before he was expelled, adding they don’t know why he choose to enter the school without permission.
“I don’t know, like, you don’t need to sneak in to come in the school? You can, like, go in and you can get, like, a pass, and you can talk to everybody,” said a student. “If you, like, graduated, most people that graduated, they come back with a pass, and you just talk to everyone, but he just snuck in.”
At one point, the teen was seen in the video writing on a board in the classroom. In another video clip, he is seen sitting in the front row as a teacher walked past him.
Police said he was not armed and did not make any threats while he was at the school.
“Sometimes things happen. I’m sure whatever happened, they will review what caused it and try to fix that so that kind of thing doesn’t happen again,” said a parent.
Springer credited the students for alerting adults about the incident. He released the following statement:
“We are very proud of the quick action our safety team took to remove him within minutes of us being alerted to his presence. We have already taken important measures to address this and all procedures and protocols with our staff and will continue to implement ways to ensure our campus remains safe.”
The teen was charged with one count of misdemeanor trespassing. As of Wednesday night, his identity has not been disclosed.
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