Since the academic year began, multiple students in Northeast Florida, including those in Duval, Baker, and Columbia counties, have been arrested for making threats against their schools. This troubling trend has been detailed by local law enforcement agencies, as reported by News4JAX.

School officials and law enforcement in Broward County have faced similar challenges with nine students arrested for a range of threats from bomb to school shootings, some of which were claimed as jokes gone wrong; these threats were shared across various social media platforms, including Snapchat and Instagram, and the arrested included the young—ages as low as 11—an 11-year-old was even taken into custody for a bomb threat at Somerset Academy in Deerfield Beach, leading to an exhaustive evacuation of the premises, information obtained by WSVN illuminated the breadth of issues.

Dr. Broward Hepburn, Broward Schools Superintendent, expressed a zero-tolerance stance, "It's a crime. When you make a threat to our school, It is definitely not a joke," and highlighted the gravity of such decisions by young students, "One bad decision can ruin or change a young person's trajectory for the rest of their life," as mentioned by WSVN 

Broward Sheriff's Office echoed this sentiment, with seven of the nine arrests occurring within just a few weeks while the rest of the arrests happened since August, the offenses spanning false bomb threats and written threats to kill, which instigated subsequent school evacuations and lockdowns as stated by Local10.

Authorities remain on high alert, and Judge Elijah H. Williams issued a stark warning to students to think before they act: "If you are charged and found guilty, You will ultimately be facing up to three years of confinement in a locked-down facility," he said, as per WSVN. The call to action extends to parents and educators to remind young individuals of the severe ramifications that posting threats online can entail, a stance both Florida counties are taking very seriously.