Fernandina Beach Police Department Press Release
Submitted by James T. Hurley, Chief
May 22, 2014 5:13 p.m.
On May 21st the staff at Fernandina Beach High School received disturbing information that appeared to indicate that an incident of violence might occur on campus today (Thursday). Staff was sufficiently and rightfully concerned, although the information was not specific, no specific threat was made, and no suspect was identified.
Further investigation revealed that at least four text messages were received by four different students. Three of the messages, although containing crude and violent imagery, appeared likely to be a poor attempt at humor, while the fourth text suggested that the recipient should not attend school on Thursday.
The text messages were generated from an unknown text service and our investigation focused on attempting to identify the sender. A first name was offered by the sender in response to a question about the identity of the sender.
Based on this information, as well as additional historical information, interviews were conducted with an individual and his family and a consent search was conducted at their place of residence. This individual was ruled out as a suspect, although implicated by the sender of the text messages.
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Meanwhile, School Resource Officer Al Smith continued working this investigation, which led to the interview of a 16 year old tenth grade student. The student confessed to sending the text messages, claiming that the messages were intended as a joke. The student has been charged with two misdemeanor offenses, Disruption of a School Function and Cyber-bullying. In addition, the student now faces administrative sanctions after review by school administrators.
There was never a direct threat of a mass shooting or stabbing at the school, although these rumors have persisted based on partial information passed around among students and parents. Additional police officers were assigned to patrol the high school campus, and all of our schools, during the rest of this week as a precautionary measure only and to ease the mind of the students and parents.
Earlier today the school and the police department received inquiries about the school campus being in “lock-down” status, but those rumors were apparently generated because of the additional activity on and near the school campus. No “lock-down” order was initiated during this investigation. Throughout this incident the staff at FBHS worked closely with the FBPD to ensure student safety at all times.
For more information, visit our Facebook page or website at www.fbpd.us, or contact Lieutenant Jack Bradley at 904-310-3205.