MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Threats of violence at Miami-Dade County schools have led to the arrest of two teenage students and an increased police presence on some campuses. The threats were not credible, police said.
The teenagers who were arrested on Monday are students at Miami Senior High School and Miami Northwestern Senior High School, police said. They are facing felony charges of written threats to kill or do bodily harm.
According to an arrest report, the 15-year-old student at Miami High posted a message on Instagram in Spanish that translated to: “I am going to kill everyone at Miami Senior High School, do not go to school if you … don’t want to die on December 6. Everyone is going to see the anger inside of me.”
Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said there has been an increase in threats during the past week. According to Daisy Gonzalez-Diego, chief communications and community engagement officer for Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the investigation into other related threats continues.
“We have dealt with about 12 different threats over the past week,” Carvalho said, calling them “non-credible” and “hoaxes.”
Coral Reef, Palmetto and Ferguson are among the other Miami-Dade high schools where threats were reported. G. Holmes Braddock Senior High School in Miami-Dade was on lockdown Monday morning because of a possible weapon on campus, but school officials said that threat was unfounded and that the lockdown was to be lifted.
“There is no need to create fear and panic in our community, so this insanity needs to stop,” Carvalho said.
The Miami High student appeared in juvenile court Monday morning. A public defender argued there was no proof that he posted that threat, but prosecutors said police conducted a thorough investigation, and a judge found probable cause.
The teen will remain in custody until his next hearing on Dec. 20.
In Broward County, investigators said they received multiple calls on Sunday about a threat against Deerfield Beach Middle School on Instagram. They later identified the culprit as a 12-year-old girl.
“The calls featured the same screenshot Instagram post that had previously been investigated by BSO’s Threat Management Unit on Dec. 4,” a Broward Sheriff’s Office spokesperson wrote in a statement. “The original poster, a 12-year-old female from Deerfield Beach middle, was identified and contacted, and the case is being forwarded to the State Attorney’s Office for possible charges to be filed against the student.”
Last week, a 17-year-old student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas in Parkland was arrested and faces three weeks in juvenile detention after threatening his school. That threat came just one day after a student allegedly killed four classmates at a high school in Michigan.
