PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WMBB) — Panama City police have released new information about the 12-year-old who’s accused of making school threats.
Police arrested the boy last Thursday at Rising Leaders Academy.
Investigators said he sent a series of text messages to one of his classmates, threatening to bring a gun to campus and shoot other students.
The text messages were allegedly sent back in February.
Police said the other boy’s mother found the message on his phone last week and reported it to authorities.
“Nationally, you know, we’ve had problems with school shootings so it’s not just upon the staff or the students, it’s up to everybody to be aware when they see something, to say something,” Panama City Criminal Investigations Sgt. Robert Johnson said. “It’s never a burden to investigate something like this. We want to make sure that we’re keeping our students safe and the community safe.”
Monday afternoon, Rising Leaders Academy provided a written statement about the incident, which states “As soon as school administrators received this information immediate action was taken and the appropriate safety reporting protocols were activated.”
The boy is charged with making written or electronic threats to kill, do bodily injury, or conducting a mass shooting, or act of terrorism.
The investigation is ongoing.
