A 17-year-old student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School has been arrested, according to the Associated Press.
According to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, the threat was made in a student chat session late Wednesday.
A caller reported seeing the threat late Wednesday night, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office. Officials said the 17-year-old high school junior had sent a text message to his classmates in a social media chat room just after 9 p.m. Wednesday.
The arrest report says the student “felt like shooting the school the next day”, and hoped that fellow students wouldn’t ““I feel like school shooting tmrw. When I sneeze it’s a signal go to the bathroom OK. I hope y’all aren’t snitches,” the text message said, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The mother of the teen told WSVN that he didn’t mean it, that to him it was a joke. She said that they had lived in another country where schools are safe at the time of the massacre in Parkland. “He’s a normal kid from a normal family and a safe environment. He doesn’t realize the world is not so safe,” she said.
“In my country, schools are very safe. Our mindset is very peaceful. He just wanted to show up among his friends,” she said. “It’s not an excuse for his behavior. It’s just an explanation for his behavior. All threats must be investigated. I understand that,” she told WSVN.
Investigators found the student at his home, and he was arrested early Thursday on one count of writing a threat to conduct a mass shooting, sheriff’s officials said.
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