The Florida dragnet first snagged a girl named Laurie, who was lying in bed amid her stuffed unicorns and Hello Kitty dolls when the ninth-grader had what she thought was a funny idea. She opened Instagram and began to type: “Blowing the skl up tmr... It was Sept. 10, six days after another 14-year-old was accused of gunning down two students and two teachers at Apalachee High in Georgia. At Laurie’s home in Florida, she posted the message and forgot about it until a few hours later, when a friend urged her to delete what she’d written. It was too late, because the internet is forever and because, unbeknownst to Laurie and hundreds of other kids, law enforcement’s tolerance for threats of any kind was nearing zero. The next day, the girl, 14, was placed in handcuffs that barely fit her wrists, charged with a felony and taken to a Volusia County detention center for three weeks. The day after that, another 14-year-old was charged for a comment on Instagram (“if yall crybabys don’t shut up ima shoot up your school”). The day after that, a 13-year-old was charged for a post on TikTok (“I will be shooting up heritage middle school on 9/13/24”). More threats would rapidly follow, in Volusia County and across the U.S. An analysis of news reports by The Washington Post found that at least 477 people — 90 percent of them students — were arrested in the two weeks after the Georgia massacre. That’s nearly 100 more than after the three previous mass school shootings combined.
Volusia’s elected sheriff, Mike Chitwood, a registered independent and brash Philadelphia native, decided he’d had enough. In the past week, he’d deployed dozens of deputies and spent an extra $21,000 in taxpayer money. On the previous night alone, his office had received 54 tips. “This is absolutely out of control, and it ends now,” he announced at a news conference, in the same moment his investigators were tracking down two more children, one 13 and the other 12. “Since parents, you don’t want to raise your kids, I’m going to start raising ’em,” he continued. “Every time we make an arrest, your kid’s photo is going to be put out there. And if I can do it, I’m going to perp walk your kid.” His ultimatum was a hit on social media. In the weeks ahead, children, parents, teachers, administrators and police officers would all wrestle with what it meant in real life. Post reporters first gathered and reviewed tens of thousands of school records and news articles, finding that both threats and arrests exploded after the September shooting at Georgia’s Apalachee High. Reporters traveled to Volusia County, Fla., to spend time inside one school district that saw a rash of threats and a harsh law enforcement crackdown, including the decision to perp-walk an 11-year-old.
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