Sarasota, Manatee schools issue warnings as school-threatening trend goes viral

Sarasota and Manatee County public schools have issued warnings, along with school districts across the country, in response to vague, often anonymous shooting and bomb threats being made on social media.

Posts on social media are encouraging students to shoot up their schools on Friday, Dec. 17.

Two 13-year old boys in Manatee County were arrested on Thursday for posting bomb threats against Haile Middle School on SnapChat, Manatee County Sheriff's Office Spokesman Randy Warren said.

Both local districts are working with local law enforcement, but neither are taking drastic steps to increase security since most of the threats are non-specific and seem to be part of a national internet fad.

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"We’ve been receiving a high number of threats all week, even starting last week," Manatee spokesman Mike Barber said. "We work very closely with all law enforcement agencies any time there is a threat to any one of our schools. We investigate it, we identify the source and we interview them."

Sarasota Schools spokesman Craig Maniglia said the district had gotten word from North Port Police on Thursday that many people were seeing the threats online and calling law enforcement.

Maniglia said the district was continuing its policy of encouraging anyone who "sees something to say something."

"The sheriff and the local law enforcement said they were going to be on alert and looking, just like they would do if any anonymous threat came in," Maniglia said.

A 15-year old boy shot and killed four classmates at a school in suburban Detroit on Nov. 30. Barber said it is not unusual for the district to see an uptick in threats following a school shooting elsewhere.

"In the wake of those kind of incidents we usually see an increase. In the weeks following Parkland we had a couple dozen threats against our schools," Barber said.

With winter break beginning in Sarasota on Wednesday and Manatee on Tuesday, the threats are coming just as students are on the verge of break.

"At certain times of the year it seems there is a restlessness to cause this kind of disruption," Barber said.

Ryan McKinnon covers schools for the Herald-Tribune. Connect with him at ryan.mckinnon@heraldtribune.com or on Twitter: @JRMcKinnon. Support the Sarasota Herald-Tribune by subscribing today.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Viral social media trend leads to threats pouring into schools