11-Year-Old Silver Sands MS Student Faces Charges After Threatening To Bomb School

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Port Orange, FL - After an 11-year-old Silver Sands Middle School student threatened to bomb the school, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office (VCSO) took him into custody, making him the 25th student to be arrested by the department for a school threat since the February 14 shooting in Parkland.

On Tuesday during fourth-period, the 11-year-old student became angry after he was moved to a different seat. According to the teacher and the students in the class, the boy yelled across the classroom “I’m gonna bomb you.” The school’s Resource Deputy was informed of the incident Wednesday morning.

The student provided a written statement where he claimed he moved by himself to a different seat. According to the VCSO, the student included the following in his statement: “One of the kids was teasing me and since he jokes that he is Russian so I said, ‘I’m going to go to Russia and bomb you’ and the teacher didn’t hear me so she asked my other classmates which don’t like me. They told my teacher a false story.”

However, four witness statements provided to deputies indicate that the student said he was going to bomb the school and the teacher. The student was subsequently charged with “making a false report concerning planting a bomb, an explosive or a weapon of mass destruction or using firearms in a violent manner,” a felony under Florida Statute 790.163.

Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood reiterates that the department has a zero-tolerance policy for jokes or threats about shootings, bombings, or other violent acts, whether they are perpetrated online or in-person. Ether students who decide to make threats or their families will be responsible for the cost of an investigation into their case. The cost, per case, is estimated at $1,032.

Copyright Southern Stone Communications 2018.

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