Kanapaha Middle School student arrested for false shooting threat

An 11-year-old Kanapaha Middle School student was arrested Wednesday after sending threatening letters to a classmate on Tuesday.

In the messages, the student stated, “I'm going to go to your school tomorrow… There's going to be a shooting,” which immediately caused concern among school staff and police.

The Deputy School Counsellor and the school administration were informed and it was confirmed that the student was not on school premises.

Officers later contacted the student at his home, where he admitted that the threat was meant as a joke.

He was charged with making written threats to harm under Florida Statute 836.10.

The threat resulted in significant disruption at Kanapaha Middle School, involving multiple staff members, police officers and the school's deputy security officer for several hours.

This incident is part of a broader problem of false threats at schools across the country, often originating from outside the local area.

The Alachua County Sheriff's Office emphasized the seriousness of these threats via Facebook and stressed that parents need to monitor their students' electronic activities to prevent future incidents.

Contact Carlos Alemany at [email protected]. Follow him on X @clos_alemany.