‘188 threats in one week’: Central Florida school threat suspects revealed: Too far or proper punishment?

By Justin Schecker

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    CENTRAL FLORIDA (WESH) — Whether serious or a prank, school threats cause irreparable harm while wasting money and resources.

The state of Florida has made improvements to school safety since the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, but school threats can still create panic for parents, disrupt students’ learning and prompt a law enforcement response.

Nearly every day in September, it seemed like another Central Florida student was in trouble for making a school threat.

“The state of Florida had five times the amount of threats they had the first month in 2023,” Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said, citing statistics from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Parkland parent Max Schachter described the rise in school threats as upsetting. His son Alex was murdered, along with 16 other students and staff members, during the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

“What we’re still seeing is the kids are not taking this seriously, and they think it’s cool to be the next school shooter,” Schachter said.

The consequences of making a school threat are serious: it can lead to a student’s suspension, expulsion, or referral to law enforcement.

“We had 188 threats in one week, and I had lost my mind, and I said, that’s it,” Chitwood said. “We’re not doing this anymore. We had made two arrests.”

Volusia Sheriff’s Office genericVolusia Sheriff’s Office arrests 15-year-old for school threat Chitwood’s deputies have arrested students on second-degree felony charges and then asked the judge to keep them locked up for 21 days.

“Following week, that number went from 188 to 40 with one arrest,” the sheriff said.

As part of his zero-tolerance policy for school threats, Chitwood has also made it a point to post the students’ “perp walks” on social media.

“For those of you who want to disrupt the school, the quality of life of these students, I’m coming to get you, and I’m going to publicly shame you in the process,” Chitwood said.

Orlando-based mental health attorney Kendra Parris questions whether the sheriff is taking the best approach.

“I don’t know that a perp walk is going to, you know, be effective,” Parris said. “There’s just a whole lot of holistic things that we have to do to prevent this situation. I sympathize with the teachers. I sympathize with law enforcement.”

Andrea Cook is raising three high school-aged children in Seminole County. She said they worry about school threats and the possibility of another school shooting.

“I’ve asked my kids if they think about it going to school, how frequently? And my daughter said, probably about once or twice a week, she thinks about it,” Cook said.

Cook told WESH 2 Investigates she has no issue with the sheriff’s perp walk videos.

“And what I have to say is, you know, whether you like Chitwood or not at a high level from the research I’ve done, it’s working,” Cook said. “The threats are down, and then ultimately, then we’re not having to put our taxpayers’ dollars behind the resources that are spent just to investigate them.”

Cook, the sheriff and Schachter agree that there should be consequences for the parents of students caught making threats.

“Kids are not going to school, they’re not learning, and then the entire investigation piece, you know, could add up to, you know, around $40,000 for each one of these threats,” said Schachter, who is the founder and executive director of Safe Schools for Alex.

Chitwood said he has spoken with state lawmakers about adding a financial penalty to the crime of making a written threat to commit a mass shooting.

“You are going to be held accountable for what your kid is doing, the havoc they’re wreaking on our school system and on law enforcement,” Chitwood said.

For Schacter, his life’s mission is to share the lessons learned from Parkland to keep students safe at schools across the country.

“After the shooting, my grief and my pain, you know, propelled me forward every day, made me get out of bed every day and put one foot in front of the other, and it’s all about keeping Alex’s memory alive,” Schachter said.

WESH 2 blurred the names and faces of the juveniles in this report. But when Chitwood posts on social media, their faces are shown, and their names are out there for everyone to see.

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