MIRAMAR, Fla. – Police have arrested a student who they said threatened to "shoot up" a South Florida high school.
Miramar police spokeswoman Tania Rues said early Thursday that a 16-year-old student at Everglades High School faces a charge of making a false report concerning the use of firearms in a violent manner.
"We want to clarify that this arrestee made a verbal threat in a classroom," Rues said. "Another student posted a message on social media advising EHS students not to go to school because of the threat that was made."
According to a probable cause affidavit, a teacher at the school told her assistant principal that a student in her theater class said, "I'm sick of this s---. I'm going to bring a gun and shoot up the school."
She said several other students in the classroom heard the remark as well.
When the teacher pulled the student aside and asked him about what he said, he claimed it was because he is being bullied by another student. The teacher said she told him that she would be moving his seat to another part of the classroom in an effort to limit his interaction with the other student.
During an interview with detectives, the boy said he was being picked on and called "stupid" and "retard."
According to the affidavit, the boy admitted to police that he told the other student he would shoot him if he followed him home. The boy said he "had no intention" of shooting anyone and that he only said it to stop the other student from bullying him.
The Broward County public school at 17100 SW 48th Ct. serves about 2,425 students and it is next to Glades Middle School, which has about 1,300 students.
Both schools are about 30 minutes away from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 people died in a mass shooting on Valentine's Day.