A 16-year-old Sunlake High School student is facing felony charges after Pasco Sheriff's Office deputies say the teen posted written threats online. The arrest, made in Pasco County, marks at least the third case in roughly a week in which county deputies have charged a local student over an alleged digital threat tied to a school.
According to Tampa Free Press, the teen was charged with making written threats to kill and unlawful use of a two-way communication device after deputies traced the alleged threat, which was posted on social media, back to the student. The Pasco Sheriff's Office said the threat did not take place on the Sunlake High School campus, and officials say the school currently has no public safety threat connected to the case.
Deputies used the arrest to renew a familiar message to parents: talk to your kids about the consequences of making threats, and about the dangers of sharing threats and rumors online instead of reporting them straight to law enforcement, per the same report from Tampa Free Press.
A Pattern Repeating Across Pasco Campuses
The Sunlake arrest lands just two days after Pasco deputies arrested a 16-year-old Gulf High School student on the same pair of charges — written threats to kill and unlawful use of a communication device — after investigating an online threat tied to a viral social media trend, according to WTSP-TV. Two days before that, deputies arrested a 12-year-old Crews Lake Middle School student on felony threat charges connected to a viral “Cat in the Hat” social media trend, as Hoodline previously reported.
The pattern is not new to Pasco County. In September 2024, the sheriff's office arrested a student for posting online threats against Wiregrass Ranch High School, applying the identical dual-charge strategy of written threats to kill and unlawful use of a two-way communication device — a case Hoodline also covered at the time. The recurrence of that exact charging combination, from Wiregrass Ranch two years ago through this week's Sunlake and Gulf High arrests, points to a deliberate and consistent legal approach by Pasco deputies toward digital school threats.
What the Charges Actually Mean Under Florida Law
Both charges carry serious weight for a juvenile. Under Section 836.10 of the Florida Statutes, making written or electronic threats to kill, cause bodily injury, or conduct a mass shooting is classified as a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000, according to the Florida Senate. Prosecutors typically stack that with a charge under Section 934.215, which makes using a two-way communication device to further a felony a third-degree offense carrying up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine, per FindLaw.
Notably, Florida courts have held that a threat does not need to be sent to a specific person to qualify as a criminal “sending” under the statute. Under precedent set in cases such as O'Leary v. State, simply composing a threatening statement and posting it somewhere others can view it — including social media — meets the legal definition of sending an electronic threat under Section 836.10, according to the Sammis Law Firm.
How Threats Get Reported and Investigated
Florida's FortifyFL app, created under the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, lets students and community members submit anonymous tips about school threats directly to law enforcement and school officials, according to the Florida Department of Education. On the ground, the Pasco Sheriff's Office also maintains dedicated School Resource Officers on campus during instructional days under Florida Statute 1006.12 and district agreements, tasked with routine security sweeps and threat investigations, per the sheriff's office.
Sunlake High School, established in Land O' Lakes in August 2007, serves roughly 2,200 students in grades 9 through 12 within the District School Board of Pasco County. The Wiregrass Ranch case, the March 2025 arrest of a Zephyrhills High student, and this week's Gulf High and Sunlake arrests all fall under the same district's jurisdiction, underscoring how frequently digital threat cases have surfaced across Pasco's school system over the past two years.
Deputies continue to press the same core message with every arrest: online threats, even ones framed as jokes or tied to viral social media challenges, can lead to felony charges. Families are urged to report suspicious posts directly to law enforcement rather than re-sharing them, a warning the sheriff's office has repeated after each of the recent arrests.
