MIAMI — An employee at Broward County Public Schools has been charged with making bomb and mass shooting threats, deputies say.
Patrick Jean, a 28-year-old front desk attendant at Lauderdale Lakes Middle School, was arrested on Wednesday. He is facing two counts of threats to discharge a destructive device and two counts of written threats to kill or conduct a mass shooting, the Broward County Sheriff's Office said.
On Tuesday morning, BSO detectives received a tip that there were bombs at Lauderdale Lakes Middle and Boyd H. Anderson High School, deputies said.
Deputies and BSO's Threat Management Unit swept both schools and determined the threats were "unfounded," deputies said.
A few hours later, another tip came in that read, "Imma shoot up Lauderdale Lakes Middle School and Boyd Anderson's school. This is not a joke."
Deputies and detectives rushed back to the schools and conducted more searches. Again, the threats were deemed unfounded.
A further investigation led detectives to Jean — who authorities say is the suspect in both threats.
They said following his arrest, Jean admitted to deputies that he made the threats. He is being held at the BSO Main Jail on a $40,000 bond.
In the past, Boyd Anderson, Oriole Elementary School and Lauderdale Lakes Middle were evacuated several times in 2018 and 2019 for bomb threats. On Wednesday, Oriole was evacuated for a bomb threat.
The arrest comes a week after Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie was arrested on a perjury charge related to his grand jury testimony.
Runcie, who has been with the district for about 10 years, on Tuesday said he would resign.
