VALRICO, Fla. — Deputies arrested two middle school students for threatening Bloomingdale High School in Snapchat posts in recent days, authorities said.
The teens, both 14 years old, appeared to use stock images of various guns and weapons — it's not believed they had access to firearms, according to a Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office news release.
"A concerned citizen let us know about what they were finding online," Amanda Granit, a spokesperson for the sheriff's office, said. "And then that's immediately when our STAR unit [began investigating]."
The School Threat Assessment Response (STAR) unit comprises of four deputies and one supervisor. The five-person team is devoted to investigating threats made towards schools.
"What they found was really disturbing," Granit said. "They were threatening to cause violence that would be the equivalent of 9/11. It was just heartbreaking and really, really terrifying threats that they were making.
"When confronted about this, these teens were saying that it was just a joke And what they're realizing is that the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office doesn't take this as a joke. We don't think this is funny. This kind of threat of violence will not be tolerated in our community."
Both students claimed the posts, created between May 11-13, were made "as a joke and to be funny." They were enough, however, to launch an investigation in collaboration with the FBI, the sheriff's office said.
Deputies say the teens don't go to Bloomingdale High School, and it remains unclear why they targeted the school. The sheriff's office said both teens attend Burns Middle School, just a five-minute drive from Bloomingdale High School.
They both confessed to creating the posts, authorities added.
"I think that 14 years old is old enough to understand that if you are threatening violence, there's going to be a consequence to your action," Granit said. "It is old enough to know right from wrong, it's old enough to know that you should not be threatening to harm another person. And that if you do so, there will be consequences."
The teens were taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center on a second-degree felony charge for a written or electronic threat to conduct a mass shooting or act of terrorism.
"The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office takes all threats to our schools and community seriously, regardless of the intent," Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a statement. "We will continue to investigate and prosecute those who make threats, whether intended as a joke or not."
According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, the STAR unit has investigated 770 threats made against schools since the start of 2023. Of those investigations, there have been 10 arrests.
Anyone who comes across suspicious or threatening material is asked to call 911 or call Crime Stoppers of Tampa Bay at 1-800-873-TIPS.
Malique Rankin is a general assignment reporter with 10 Tampa Bay. You can email her story ideas at mrankin@10tampabay.com and follow her Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages.