STARKE, Fla. – All Bradford County schools will be closed Monday because of a threat received on a voicemail line at Bradford Middle School.
In a Facebook post, the Bradford County School District said it takes all threats seriously and it is working with the Bradford County Sheriff's Office and the Starke Police Department to investigate.
The Starke Police Department is expected to do a sweep through of Bradford Middle School around 8 a.m.
Sheriff Gordon Smith with the Bradford County Sheriff's Office reports they are investigating two possible leads involving two students.
"Late (Sunday) night, I was contacted by our school superintendent. He advised me one of his principals had received a message on the answering machine for the school," Smith said. "He came by my house, we sat down, discussed it. It was a pretty serious threat. There was a decision made to close the schools while we were performing the investigation such as tracing phone lines, trying to figure out if we could identify these phone lines. Shortly after midnight, we got another tip that came in from some parents and following up on leads this morning we’re actively out trying to follow those leads, trying to bring this thing to some type of resolution."
"It was pretty detailed in exactly what they wanted to do. Close down one school as a distraction and attempt to go somewhere else with this diabolical method. Basically, all they wanted to do was cause harm, is what they left in the message. We were concerned about that. As me and the superintendent discussed it back in forth we made the decision to shut down all schools and exhaust all resources until we find the subject involved in this, and they’re going to be held accountable and that’s what we did," said Sheriff Smith.
A number of private schools were also closed Monday morning. Those include Starke Christian School, Northside Christian Academy and Hope Christian Academy.