Teenager Charged With Making Threat To Shoot Up Middle School

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Orange City, FL - Yet another Volusia County student is facing a felony charge for making a threat to hurt people in school.

This time, it's a 14-year-old boy who attends River Springs Middle School in Orange City.

The Volusia County Sheriff's Office took the unnamed student into custody earlier today, the 30th arrested by VCSO since the deadly shooting of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on Valentine's Day.

VCSO spokesperson Laura Williams credited Stacy Gotlib - the school's principal - with tipping off the school resource deputy around lunchtime about chatter from students which indicated that boy might bring a gun to school on the last day of the school year.

"Both the principal and the deputy asked the student about the threats," Williams added. "Gotlib said the teen was truthful and said he walked up to a group of students and said he would shoot up the school next week."

The student was arrested despite claiming it was a joke and that he didn't have access to a gun.

"Inciting fear at school and in the community is still not a joke to Sheriff Mike Chitwood or school officials," Williams stated. "Students and their families are being held responsible for the cost of investigating each suspicious incident – estimated at least $1,082 per incident."

The 30 who have been arrested by VCSO are between the ages of 11 and 17.

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