12-year-old girl in custody after threats made to 2 Davie schools

DAVIE, FLA. (WSVN) - Police have arrested a 12-year-old girl accused of making alarming threats against Nova Middle and High School in Davie.

These kinds of threats are being taken seriously and are now a felony in the State of Florida.

Davie Police said the sixth-grader posted threats online Sunday night. Those threats were then reported, and the student was arrested later that night.

Instead of going to school Monday morning, she appeared in court.

“You understand the rules that are in place, they are very specific rules,” the judge told the student. “As I told you, you can’t violate them in anyway.”

The judge told her that she is to have no contact with any of the people mentioned in her online post. She’s also not allowed to use her cellphone or computer. She has been suspended from school for 10 days and cannot leave her house during that time.

Davie Police tweeted out a statement Monday morning, saying that a suspect was taken into custody.

The threat was made Sunday via social media. “Last night, everybody was posting about it on Snapchat or on spam accounts on Instagram,” said Jensey Melo, a junior at Nova High. “They never really posted a picture of the person. It’s usually just their Instagram. I mean, it was a shooting threat, but I thought it was actually empty because the picture they put of the guns was like a picture you would find on Google. Like, it didn’t look real.”

Officers said they were able to track the sixth-grader down through her smartphone’s IP address and then confronted her at her home. At first she denied making the threat, but police said she later admitted to it, saying it was a prank, and she was put up to it.

“There were 11 total threats, and they were specific threats naming teachers, students and periods,” said Davie Police Detective Vivian Gallinal. “She subsequently was arrested for making these threats.”

7News spoke with the 12-year-old’s defense attorney Monday, who also said she may have been bullied.

“There are allegations of bullying. We will be looking into regarding what the school board may have done or not have done,” said attorney Kory Hill. “Law enforcement, according to the family, has already questioned the family about that. No firearms exist in that home. The court just made a finding of that as well.”

Just one week ago, all four Nova schools were placed on lockdown after someone threatened to shoot up one of the campuses.

Police said a caller threatened to shoot up Nova High School. However, after having swept the area, officers determined the threat was not credible.

That call came two days after police responded to a fight at Nova High School that ended in a stabbing.

Monday morning, there was increase in police presence at the schools.

The constant string of threats has left students feeling uneasy, especially in the days after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

“Ever since what happened, the first thing that happened on February the 14th, now it’s happening here,” said student Serenity Clarke. “It’s like monkey-see-monkey-do, and I’m tired of it.”

“It makes me nervous to come to school. It makes me not want to come to school,” said another student.

“I guess kind of intimidated,” said a different student.

The threats also come as a shock to parents.

“Children are being raised by the cellphones and the media, and instead of us being active in their lives, so they don’t seek the other attention, they’re doing anything to get attention,” said parent Shaun Clarke.

Because the child posted a picture of several guns, police searched her home but did not find any weapons.

Despite the threats having been non-credible, police said they are all being taken seriously.

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