LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – School administrators and deputies in Lake County are looking into a threat of violence at Lake Minneola High School.
The district sent out an automated message to parents on Sunday in which Principal Linda Shepherd-Miller reported parents first made school officials aware that students were talking about rumors of a shooting threat.
Chris Patton, spokesman for Lake County Schools, said the threat may have been posted by someone on Facebook early in the week, but the threat referenced a shooting incident planned for Monday. Patton said the district first heard the threat would be carried out this Friday, but new rumors point to Monday.
Patton said as a result the school district will increase security, adding more deputies to patrol the campus and more of the district's own security personnel.
Neither district officials nor Lake County deputies have found evidence of the posting.
Students said they began hearing about the threat in school last week.
"All I heard was some guy was supposed to bring a gun to school. I was, like, 'I don't really believe it, but I guess it could happen,'" Lake Minneola student John DeMarco said.
Parents say any threat should be taken seriously.
"It's really scary, given what happened in Connecticut. It's just a
terrible, terrible thing, so if that were going to happen at [my son's] school,
we'd be deeply concerned and probably keep him home," said Don Hortsman.
This latest school threat comes just days after police arrested a Seminole County man for making threats that forced a lockdown of Winter Park High School last week. Deputies also arrested another man in Flagler County for threatening a school shooting there.