FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Howard Hepburn held a news conference Monday afternoon to discuss school safety and recent school threats.
“I just want to really emphasize that threats to our schools -- be it in person or virtual -- are definitely not OK and are taken very seriously,” Hepburn said. “We actually reviewed this with our law enforcement agencies and we plan to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law for any issues of threats in our schools being in person or online.”
School Board Chair Lori Alhadeff, whose daughter Alyssa was killed in the 2018 Parkland school shooting, also spoke at the news conference.
“And as someone who was personally impacted by school violence, there is nothing funny about making threats against a school,” she said.
The news conference came days after a 14-year-old girl was arrested on felony charges for allegedly making threats on social media against multiple schools.
School board member Debbi Hixon, in an interview with Local 10 News, suggested that parents bear the financial costs of a police response if their child makes a threat.
Hixon lost her husband in the 2018 Parkland school shooting.
“It is not that the message isn’t getting to the students about the consequences, it just seems like maybe those consequences don’t seem severe enough to them,” Hixon said. “Maybe it is we start charging people what that cost is to the (sheriff’s office) or the school district. We have to do something different.”
According to Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies, the student from Lauderdale Lakes used her Instagram stories on Saturday afternoon to threaten several Broward schools, and later said she intended them as a joke. Hepburn said the threats were against about 10 schools.
BSO deputies worked with the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, Plantation Police Department and Broward County Public Schools Police on the case.
The teen, whose identity has not been released, appeared in court Sunday where Magistrate Joseph Murphy ordered that she be held at the Broward Juvenile Detention Center until at least Sept. 28.
She faces multiple charges, including making written threats to kill/conduct a mass shooting, threatening to throw, project, place or discharge any destructive device, and unlawful use of a two-way communication device -- all felonies per Florida state statute.
Judge Elijah H. Williams has been assigned to her case.
The husband of Broward School Board Vice Chair Debbi Hixon was among the 17 murdered during the Parkland school shooting.
“It is so frustrating that this keeps happening,” she said. “Threats are serious and the anxiety it causes students and staff is unforgivable.”
Just last month, during an SRO active killer training news conference, Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony warned parents and students about the serious consequences of making a threat of violence against a school.
“Legislation was passed back in 2018 that became much more stricter and punitive in terms of how we hold people accountable and they are being charged with felony arrests every time,” he said.
Here’s what Rep. Jared Moskowitz had to say on This Week in South Florida Sunday:
“Nowadays, you cannot go ahead on social media and make threats against a school because we no longer treat that as a joke,” he said, adding that every threat is taken seriously. “We have invested both state and federal dollars into the real crime unit to do that and it is why the Marjory Stoneman Douglas School Safety bill that we passed in Florida on a bipartisan basis is so important because it gave law enforcement these tools to react quickly when we see these threats made online.”
Broward State Attorney Harold F. Pryor released the following statement Monday regarding all school violence threats:
“We take all incidents involving threats of potential violence at schools very seriously because they create a lot of disruption and fear for kids, parents and staff. Our community knows too well that these incidents can be very, very serious and it is important for us to hold any individual accountable for their conduct.”
“Prosecutors use great discretion in handling these types of cases and work very hard to determine the appropriate response, depending on the seriousness of the threat and the needs of the individual juvenile. A panel of senior prosecutors reviews the evidence and circumstances of each case to try to ensure that our office makes consistent and appropriate decisions on whether to file charges or refer the juveniles to programs and services that can help them. This can include programs that monitor them, provide psychological evaluations and care, as well as other services. In each case, prosecutors review the behavioral history and needs of each individual to ensure they are held accountable.”
To report any suspicious activity involving Broward schools that you want investigated, visit BROWARDschools.com/securitytips or call 754-321-3500.