Law enforcement responds to scare at local high school

Earlier this morning Historic City News learned that an anonymous source sent a message through a social media network to a student at St Augustine High School.  The student shared the message out of concern and “several units” responded, according to a press release from the St Johns County Sheriff’s Office.

According to the announcement, there was no identifiable sender, county, school district or specific school identified in the message, which only read, “I will be shooting up the school tomorrow”, indicating today’s date, October 18, 2019.

“The safety and security of our students is paramount, and we will continue to be diligent in our efforts to thoroughly investigate any and all threats,” investigators on the scene reported.  “The St. Johns Sheriff’s Office has found the anonymous post not to be credible.”

Authorities are currently working with law enforcement related to this threat, which was made on the Snapchat social media app. There is evidence that the same anonymous threat is being shared throughout our community by local students, even though the threatening post does not specify an individual school or our school district. 

Rumors followed on other popular apps that indicated a student was found with “a gun on campus”.  That rumor evolved into a student with a “backpack full of guns was arrested”, however a sheriff’s spokesperson confirmed that none of the rumors are true.

There were no guns or verifiable threats identified during the investigation, according to the report.