JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Security is tight right now at Bartram Trail High School after a 14-year-old boy was arrested for threatening the lives of several people at his school.
Police say the boy threatened to kill 100 people at his school, a sentiment that carries even more significance this week following the massacre at Virginia Tech University.
But while families of some students at Bartram Trial admit hearing about a mass murder plot on school grounds makes them nervous, many of them sent their children and grandchildren to class anyway, confident in the school's ability to keep them safe.
“I've always been comfortable at Bartram Trail,” said one parent. “So I'm feeling that things will be taken care of."
Parents and students learned about the threat on Thursday when the 14-year-old student was arrested. Police say the teen sent an email to a friend saying he wanted to set a new school shooting record by killing one hundred people. That email was intercepted by a parent who then called the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office.
Now, the boy faces felony charges, and parents say they are glad the teenager was turned in before anything terrible happened.
Student Arrested Charged With Planning School Shooting
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A 14-year-old student at Bartram Trail High School was arrested Wednesday for making threats and implying he was going to conduct a mass school shooting that would be worse than the Virginia Tech massacre, police said.
Investigators with the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office said the 14-year-old boy said he was planning to top the number of 33 victims in the Virginia Tech shootings. According to a press release, he said his goal was to have 100 victims.
The sheriff’s office said it was notified late Wednesday morning of an e-mail, in which the student made the threats to conduct the mass shooting, by a parent of one of Drawdy’s friends.
Police said the teen made similar threats several weeks ago, but those threats went unreported.
He was arrested and charged with threat to throw, project, place, or discharge any destructive device, which is a second-degree felony.
