FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ A 12-year-old girl was arrested Monday for posting threats on social media "to shoot someone" and warning "no one go to school tmrrw," Pembroke Pines, Fla., police said.
The student at Pembroke Pines Charter's central campus admitted to putting the posts on Snapchat. She said she did it because of bullying but said she had no access to guns and no intention of acting on the threats, said Amanda Conwell, a police spokeswoman.
It is yet another local example of what Broward Schools' Superintendent Robert Runcie has called an "alarming trend." There have been at least a dozen similar incidents throughout Broward County so far in the 2018-2019 school year, a schools district spokeswoman recently told the Sun Sentinel.
Four Broward County students were arrested in one week last month for similar actions _ one threatened to "shoot up" his school and another posted a picture of an air pellet rifle on social media. Three of those students said they didn't really mean it and two of them blamed bullying.
But in one of those cases, a 9-year-old boy who also claimed he was bullied showed up at Paul Turner Elementary in Lauderhill with a loaded pistol. He aimed it at three classmates, police said.
The Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Act became law in March, less than a month after the Parkland high school shooting in which 17 people were killed and 17 others were wounded. The legislation makes threats of violence toward a school a second-degree felony.
An anonymous tip on Monday alerted the school resource officer at Pembroke Pines Charter, 12350 Sheridan St., to the girl's concerning Snapchat posts.
One of the posts said, "if I get this one more time I will shoot someone." Another said "no one go to school tmrrw." The girl was arrested and taken to juvenile hall.
"We are once again asking our local parents to please speak with your children about making threats of this nature," Conwell said. "All threats made against our schools will be taken seriously."
