A Landmark Middle School student in Jacksonville has been arrested after making a verbal threat of a mass shooting on campus, Duval County Public Schools confirmed. School police opened an investigation once reports of the threat surfaced, and administrators activated the district's threat-assessment procedures as the case unfolded.
School officials told News4JAX that the student made the verbal threat of potential violence against the school, and that Duval County Public Schools confirmed the arrest followed directly from that threat. News4JAX also reported that a post had been removed. Principal Vontrena Myers said multiple tips submitted through Fortify Florida, the state's anonymous reporting tool, helped identify and ultimately arrest the student responsible.
How the Tip System and Security Response Worked
Myers said administrators have added enhanced campus security measures on top of Landmark's existing weapons-detection system following the arrest. She was direct about how the school views this kind of incident: threatening statements, she said, are not treated as pranks or jokes. “These situations are addressed with the strongest school disciplinary consequences possible and, when warranted, as a criminal matter,” Myers said, according to the station's report.
That means students who make threats face the toughest disciplinary measures the school can apply, and may also face criminal charges when warranted, per the same account. Myers urged parents to talk with their children about how seriously the school treats threats, and to encourage kids to flag concerning behavior to a trusted adult. “See something, say something remains one of our best methods of keeping our campuses secure,” she said.
Reporting Options for Students, Families and Staff
Students, families and staff can report safety concerns directly to the school or submit them anonymously through Fortify Florida. The tool, which the state created and funded through the 2018 Florida Legislature as part of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, allows users to skip entering their name and contact information entirely if they want to stay anonymous, according to getfortifyfl.com.
That anonymous-tip pipeline sits inside a broader state mandate. The Florida Department of Education says its Office of Safe Schools is required to build a statewide behavioral threat-management process along with a Florida-specific threat-assessment instrument for schools and districts, and the agency says the resulting Florida Safety and Threat Management Portal is now live, per the Florida Department of Education.
A Pattern of Threats Across North Florida Schools
This is not the first time Landmark Middle School has faced a threat scare. In March 2023, a student was arrested after posting a threat targeting the school on social media, and the school went into lockdown while police investigated; searches of students and their belongings were planned for Wednesday, after the Monday lockdown. News4JAX previously reported. That case is separate from the current arrest and involved different circumstances.
Other Duval-area and North Florida schools have dealt with similar incidents. A Baldwin Middle-Senior High student was arrested in late October after making threatening comments on social media, Duval County Public Schools confirmed. And in Okaloosa County, a 12-year-old girl is facing felony charges after a threat naming Pryor Middle School and Bruner Middle School was posted on TikTok, according to WKRG.
What Florida Law Says About Mass-Shooting Threats
Florida statute makes it a second-degree felony to send, post, or transmit a writing or other record viewable by another person that threatens a mass shooting, according to the Florida Legislature. The statute defines an electronic record broadly to include digital text, graphics, video, audio or images, though it specifically excludes telephone calls from that definition.
