Florida education leaders look to crack down on threats

ORLANDO, Fla. — The Florida Department of Education is looking to improve school safety by putting a stop to false threats.

The board met Wednesday in Orlando and discussed the epidemic of false threats that they say swept over not just Florida, but the country at the start of this school year.

“These threats and false reports are extremely troublesome and they create unnecessary anxiety for our students, our parents and our employees,” said Orange County Schools Superintendent Dr. Maria Vazquez.

Vice chair Ryan Petty said many of these false reports came through FortifyFL, a suspicious activity reporting tool.

“We take threats in Florida very seriously, they will be investigated by law enforcement, and if we find out that they’re false threats, the students are still subject to prosecution and the parents may be subject to prosecution,” said Petty.

In an effort to stop it, the commissioner of education sent out a letter to superintendents in October writing that they are requiring “every district school board to make available a training for parents and guardians of students that includes the consequences for making a threat or false report via FortifyFL.”

Districts had until last week to make that happen.

The board voted on Wednesday to further the effort by making sure the same education for parents will be available every school year going forward.

“Parents and kids didn’t understand the serious nature of making a threat to a school in Florida, and so this is an effort to educate them on that,” said Petty. “We want to do a better job of educating students and parents about FortifyFL, and what it’s legitimate uses are for, which is to protect our schools.”

Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said he wants to see even more done — saying the county is up to 562 threats this year, double what they had last year.

“Every threat can incur tens of thousands of dollars in investigative and security overtime,” said Chitwood.

He said he plans to push legislators next session to put a fine in place for parents of kids who make false threats.

“And if they can’t pay it, we’re going to ask that they spend a weekend in jail or two weekends in jail, whatever it is, so that they get the idea that they need to be parents,” Chitwood said. “And if we have to force you to do it, we’ll force you to do it.”