Florida is a state that stands for law and order.
One disturbing trend in schools has the police at their wits’ end.
And a Florida sheriff gave parents a tough message after this awful student problem.
Florida sheriff lays down the law over phony school threats
Security is one of the most serious issues that government schools deal with.
Schools are forced to take every threat they encounter seriously.
But that has led to a rise in hoaxes from students that require law enforcement to investigate them.
Heritage Middle School in Deltona, Florida was briefly locked down after a student reported seeing a suspicious person with a weapon.
The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office searched the area but never found a suspect who fit that description.
Two students at the middle school were arrested for making violent threats on social media.
Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood went off on parents during a press conference over the growing number of threats in school.
The school year is young but his office is being swamped with investigating threats.
Chitwood said that 54 threats to Volusia County Schools were reported in less than a day on the Fortify Florida app, a tool to report potential threats to law enforcement.
Investigating those threats cost the sheriff’s office almost $21,000.
And every one of them turned out to be a hoax.
“That means investigators in the school district have been running around the clock to investigate these tips, which are all turning out to be false,” Chitwood said. “So far, it’s cost $21,000 to do these investigations.”
Chitwood stressed that he was not in the parenting business.
“So parents, do your job. Don’t let Sheriff Chitwood raise your kids. This is absolutely ridiculous,” Chitwood stated.
Sheriff lectures parents about unruly kids
Chitwood laid down the law with parents after the flood bogus threats.
He told them he would perp-walk their kids if they were caught making bogus threats.
“Parents, you don’t want to raise your kids, I’m going to start raising them,” Chitwood said. “Every time we make an arrest, your kid’s photo is going to be put out there. And if I could do it, I’m going to perp walk your kid so that everybody can see what your kid’s up to.”
The sheriff added that the parents would get perp-walked too if they looked the other way at a threat their kids made.
“This is absolutely ridiculous,” Chitwood exclaimed. “Go talk to the families who have lost a loved one in a school shooting. These little knuckleheads think it’s funny. Go talk to those parents and see how funny this is. It’s not.”
Florida law allows parents to receive the bill for a threat investigation by law enforcement that turned out to be false.
Retired Homeland Security agent Tom Hackney told News4JAX that Sheriff Chitwood sent Volusia County parents a message.
“You hope it’s enough of a wake-up call at least to the parents to realize that when they start seeing other parents arrested or very young kids get arrested for this, that hey, I’ve got to take this by the head,” Hackney said.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
