For the second time in eight days, a student was arrested on the Plant City High School campus.
Administrators at PCHS held the bell Wednesday morning after a message threatening gun violence was found on a boy’s bathroom wall. A student was later arrested for writing the message, but no gun was found.
According to witnesses at the school and posts shared to social media, “Im (sic) shooting the school up during second chance. I have my gun with me in class,” was found written on the bathroom wall.
PCHS Principal Susan Sullivan said Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office deputies were immediately notified and students were held in their classrooms while deputies arrived to investigate.
According to HCSO spokesperson Larry McKinnon, the school was “on modified lockdown for a short period.” Sullivan said the school never reached a full lockdown, where “the teachers lock their doors, the kids are hiding in a crouched position. We were never at that point. Everything gets locked and no one can come or go. We didn’t go to that resort.”
Sullivan said students were held in class from 9:30 to around 10:20 a.m., after law enforcement officers caught the suspected student and found no threat. Classes resumed under a modified bell schedule.
Wednesday’s incident comes barely eight days after a 14-year-old PCHS student was arrested shortly after school when a loaded .40 caliber handgun and drug paraphernalia were found in his backpack. Sullivan said Wednesday’s incident was isolated and unrelated. It also comes one day after two students were killed and 18 injured during a shooting at Marshall High School in Benton, Kentucky. Sullivan said threatening messages are taken more seriously in today’s climate.
“Probably 10 or 15 years ago we might not have taken this seriously, but in today’s day and time we take it very seriously,” she said. “There was a shooting yesterday in Kentucky. We would rather err on the side of caution and concern and safety.”
Law enforcement officers used security cameras to identify the student, who was then found and arrested on campus. Sullivan said the student will no longer attend Plant City High School.
“‘I’m very thankful that there was no issue,” Sullivan said, “that everybody was safe and that it was resolved very quickly thanks to school security and the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s office and our school resource officers.”