The Bradford County School District said students and staff at Starke Elementary School, Bradford Middle School and the North Florida Technical College were instructed to shelter in place after an unidentified individual climbed a fence at the elementary school.
The incident occurred around 2 p.m. on Friday, January 23.
Bradford County Sheriff’s Office Col. Brad Smith said Starke Elementary School went on lockdown for approximately 10 minutes after students reported to administrators that someone was climbing a fence to enter the campus.
“We were able to confirm that there was a nine-year-old homeschooled kid who lives near the elementary school,” Smith said. “He was the one who was actually climbing the fence trying to come in, and once the other kids saw him, that’s when he climbed back down and ran back to his house.”
The colonel said the child attempted to scale the chain-link fence on the southwest corner of the campus, near some basketball courts in the back of the school.
Smith said administrators briefly locked down the campus, unaware of the alleged intruder’s age. He added that after talking to the nine-year-old’s father about the incident, deputies left the preteen in the custody of his parent.
