HIALEAH, FLA. (WSVN) - A student enrolled in a Hialeah charter school has been arrested after making threats toward several teachers and nearly two dozen students.
Principal Teresa Santalo at iMater Academy confirmed the Hialeah Police Department is investigating the written and text message threats made by 15-year-old Alexander Polo.
According to the arrest report, police received a call on Monday and met with Santalo “who stated several students advised her that the defendant told them that he was going to do a mass shooting on Friday, September 27th, 2019.”
Santalo told 7News every threat and rumored threat to the school, located along West 21st Street, is taken seriously.
She released the following statement:
“Monday afternoon we were made aware of text messages sent by a student including threats against our school and the safety of those therein. Immediately upon learning of such statements, we alerted the local authorities. We understand that the Hialeah Police Department is currently investigating the matter and that the individual who made the threats was taken into custody.”
Police went to Polo’s home, and according to the arrest report, the teen handed over “a composition notebook which contained a list of 23 names of students and four teachers. The list was titled, ‘People that are going to die.'”
Santalo gave credit to school administrators for acting quickly.
Students at the school said the situation escalated fast.
“I heard some kids talking in lunch. They said it as a joke, but then teachers started finding out, and then everybody started worrying,” said student Leannis Laureio. “[It was] something about a freshman that wrote down a few names and that he was going to go after them or something.”
“Our teacher told me that there’s a kid who was going to shoot up the school, and he had names in a book,” said student Rafael Gomez.
“I didn’t take it seriously until I heard it from my grandparents this morning,” said a student at the school.
Students at the school said this is not the first threat to the school.
“This isn’t the first time this happened here,” said one student. “Last year it happened, and a whole bunch of people didn’t come to school.”
“I thought, ‘What if they actually do something?’ Because people are capable of anything these days,” said Laureio.
Students and parents said they did not receive information from the school about the incident but found out through social media, the news and word of mouth.
Polo was charged with a felony of written threats to kill or do bodily injury.
In her statement, Santalo said, “We are not aware of any other threat at this time to anyone at our school.”
Polo’s father said the family is not ready to make a statement at this time.
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