BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Telegraph Staff Writer
STARKE— Bradford County’s sheriff defended his decision to publicize the mug shot of a 13-year-old who threatened to shoot students at Bradford Middle School and Bradford High School last week.
Gordon Smith said the seriousness of the student’s crime warranted his agency posting the mug shot on the sheriff’s office’s Facebook page.
‘It was supposed to be a joke’
The sheriff said that between fourth and fifth period, on Feb. 14, a student at the middle school made a verbal statement within earshot of two other students saying he was going to shoot up the school the following day.
“As the day went on,” Smith wrote on his social media post, “other students and adults started hearing about this incident and began posting their concerns on various social media platforms.”
Smith said that overnight and into the morning of the following day, deputies tracked down the rumors until they could determine the validity of the threats and the student who made them.
“Detective Joe Shiller arrested a 13-year-old who recently transferred into Bradford Middle School,” Smith wrote. “He admitted to making the threatening statement but said it was supposed to be a joke.”
The defendant was arrested on a second-degree felony and eventually transferred to the custody of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice.
Social media outrage
After the sheriff disclosed the identity of the defendant and posted his image on social media, many Facebook readers expressed outrage and disappointment that Smith posted the image.
Elizabeth Hauck wrote, “Why is this child’s photo shown? Unacceptable.”
Sharon Marie: “I support the arrest; however, I do not support putting this child’s photo online. He is accused of a crime, but he is a child. Moreover, he has not been tried or convicted.”
Trinah Sanchez: “His picture should have never been made public; he is still a youth. Because of the charge, he is listed as a felon before he turns 18. Yet similar situations have taken place at Bradford High, NO PICTURE, NO NAME, NO CHARGE. I guess because he knew the white boy.”
Wanda Middleton: “This child is not an adult, and his picture should not have been posted. This county and country need so much prayer.”
Christina Harris: “So are we NOW going to start arresting and posting pictures of EVERY student that makes a “threat”? Better make sure you keep it consistent….”
‘We can’t do anything with him’
Smith said that in addition to the seriousness of the threat, he also considered the statements of the student and the student’s parents before deciding to post the image.
Smith said one of his deputies asked the defendant if he would have done anything differently now that he was facing felony charges.
According to the sheriff, his response was: Well, I would just tell him I’d kill him, not shoot up the school.
“Apparently, it wasn’t getting through,” Smith added. “This kid needs help of some kind, and under Florida Statutes, we’re allowed to post the information and a picture of a juvenile.”
The sheriff noted that the defendant made his threat on the anniversary of the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
“We take it so seriously because here’s what happens. We don’t want a Marjorie Stoneman Douglas,” he said.
Smith said the defendant’s parents indicated to his deputies that the 13-year-old was out of control.
“The parents said: ‘We’re done. We can’t do anything with him. We’ve tried.’”
Smith also noted that the 13-year-old had recently transferred from another school district and may wind up in another school district later.
“If we don’t do anything and we slap him on the hand, and he gets a little bit of counseling,” Smith said, “but then he doesn’t go to counseling or whatever happens, it transpires a year from now, two years from now or three years from now, and he does act out on that, then the police are going to say, why didn’t you do anything?”
Smith noted that in past school shootings, like Marjorie Stoneman Douglas and Sandy Hook, the shooters signaled their intentions before acting, yet no one took action based on those warning signs.
“Nothing was done,” he said of the warnings before the tragedies. “We decided we’re going to take action. I made a commitment. I’d much rather show the face of this one student, this one juvenile that I had, show the faces of victims in our school system.”
Smith also took aim at his social media critics, recalling the grief and crying after the photos of school shooting victims were revealed.
“What’s sad is that you have people that cry louder because we posted the picture of a kid,” he said. There are consequences.”
See something, say something
Smith said that although the focus of the incident centered on what he called one bad child, he said the students who spoke up after hearing the threat and the parent who called the hotline deserve credit for their actions.
“We talk about the bad child, but I want to talk mainly about the good kids,” he said. “These kids, when they heard this, did the right thing. They stepped up; they reported it as they should.”
Smith said a parent called a school threat state hotline around 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 14, to report the threat.
“We started investigating it,” he said. “For a long time, we thought it might be nothing.”
He added that deputies met with the hotline caller at his Crystal Lake area home. The parent showed deputies a screenshot of a Snapchat post that contained a threat to two campuses.
“The threat made was: ‘Y’all warning a boy is threatening to shoot up the middle and high school,” wrote Detective Joseph Shiller in an arrest report. “This Snapchat message came through a BHS student.”
Shiller then met with the student who reported the threat on Snapchat. He told the officer from whom he heard the rumor. Shiller then went to the second student, who pointed him to a third source.
Smith said that throughout the night and early morning, Shiller, in addition to Lt. Shaun Burgin and Deputy Lakiesha Lewis, went from student to student trying to track down the source of the threat.
“It was: Well, I heard it from this one, and then I heard it from this one,” Smith said. “I can tell you that we were beating on parents’ doors at 1:30 in the morning from the time we received the complaint.”
The trio eventually found the student who heard the original threat, but he did not know the student’s name, who told him he would shoot up the school. However, he did recall where and when he heard the threat, and he remembered that the threat came from a black male with a white backpack.
Burgin, who heads school security at the sheriff’s office, found a video of the encounter based on the student’s account.
At 6:30 later that morning, Burgin met with middle school administrators and staff, showing them the image of the verbal exchange. They identified the defendant as the black male with the white backpack.
The sheriff said deputies then went to the 13-year-old’s home, and he admitted making the threat.
Smith added that the student’s stepfather had a firearm in the home, but the weapon had not been removed from its storage location.
Two-thirds of middle schoolers stay home
While officers tracked down the threat, news of the incident spread through word of mouth and social media.
“Next thing I know, I’ve got parents calling me 9, 10, 11, 12 o’clock at night,” recalled Smith. “Then at six o’clock the next morning, school board members are calling: ‘Hey Sheriff, I’ve got people calling me. Where are you (with this investigation)?’”
The sheriff said that even though the defendant was in custody by the time school started on the 15th, he beefed up the office’s presence on the Starke campuses to reassure parents.
“We had six people on campus at the middle school in uniform,” he said. “Then we also had a couple of additional people. I don’t know the exact number, but at the high school, too, we had the school protection deputy. Also, one of the patrol guys and, I think, a couple of the administrative personnel.”
On the day following the threat, two-thirds of middle school students were absent, and one-half of the high school’s students no-showed.
Smith said the campus disruption further vindicates his decision to post the defendant’s mugshot on Facebook.
“Fake threats have real consequences,” he said, “and when it comes to school safety, we can’t leave any stone unturned.”
