A Florida sheriff fed up with false school shooting threats is taking a new tactic to try get through to students and their parents: posting the mugshot of any offender on social media. Officials across the U.S. have seen a wave of school shooting hoaxes, especially after the deadly attack at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., which killed two students and two teachers. Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood on Florida’s Atlantic Coast is tired of the hoaxes targeting students, disrupting schools and sapping law enforcement resources. In social media posts Monday, Chitwood warned parents that if their kids are arrested for making these threats, he’ll make sure the public knows, reports the Associated Press.
“Since parents, you don’t want to raise your kids, I’m going to start raising them,” Chitwood said. “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 so that everybody can see what your kid’s up to.” Chitwood made the announcement in a video highlighting the arrest of an 11-year-boy who was taken into custody for allegedly threatening to carry out a school shooting at Creekside or Silver Sands Middle School. Chitwood posted the boy’s full name and mugshot to his Facebook page. In the video, which had more than 270,000 views on Facebook as of Monday afternoon, the camera pans across a conference table covered in airsoft guns, pistols, fake ammunition, knives and swords that officers claim the boy was “showing off” to other students. Later, the video cuts to officers letting the boy out of a squad car and leading him handcuffed into a secure facility. Under Florida law, juvenile court records are exempt from public release, but not if the child is charged with a felony, as in this case.
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