TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — The Leon County Sheriff's office said today, it has confirmed that an account used to make a mass-shooting threat belonged to a Nims Middle School student.
LCSO received a tip about the post in question on September 12, 2024. Their investigation led them to evidence related to a 14-year-old boy's social media activity. In an interview with investigators, the boy denied making the threats.
The student is now charged with felony written threats to commit a mass shooting. The student was transported to the Juvenile Assessment Center.
The threat followed the September 4th, 2024 shooting at Apalachee High School, in Winder, Georgia. Four people died and seven were injured by gunfire in that attack. In the following week, multiple Big Bend and South Georgia schools responded to threats of violence made on social media. Those included schools in Brooks, Decatur, Leon, Miller, Suwannee, Taylor, and Wakulla counties.
According to data compiled by CNN, school shootings have hit a new record every year since 2021. So far in 2024, there have been 83. Florida's rate of school shootings since 2008 is on the lower end: just .15 per 100,000 population. Georgia's rate, however, is on the upper end. Georgia's had .40 per 100,000 population. In real numbers, that's at least 43 shootings since 2008.
According to a report from TDR Technology Solutions, however, Florida topped the list when it comes to the number of fake threats made against schools in 2023. Taxpayers wound up paying a total of $103,531,246.42 because of those threats, according to the report.
