FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. – A Flagler County middle school received another threat Monday morning, but the county sheriff says they’ve had so many now, officials are getting better at dealing with them.
Sheriff Rick Staly says Buddy Taylor Middle School received another threat, and the school was briefly locked down around 7 a.m. as students were being dropped off. But deputies quickly determined the threat was unfounded.
“We’ve had so many of these now that are focused on Buddy Taylor Middle School that are between our dispatchers, our detectives, and our school resource deputies. We can pretty quickly determine if it is a fraudulent call and based on the information that’s provided will allow us to determine that quicker also,” Staly said, adding that it was clear from the call that the suspect is not familiar with the school.
Since Tuesday, May 14, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office has said that Buddy Taylor Middle School has received multiple “swatting” calls. Old Kings Elementary, First Baptist Christian Academy and Suncoast Community School have also received threats, according to the sheriff’s office.
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Flagler Schools Superintendent LaShakia Moore posted a video on her official X account Saturday addressing the events from this past week.
“We take these threats seriously and we will respond utilizing our safety protocols,” Moore said in the video.
An arrest has been made in connection to one of the calls, but Staly said that caller was a copycat of the original suspect.
On Friday, the sheriff’s office announced the arrest of a 13-year-old boy in Daytona Beach. The sheriff said his friend dared him to make a threat against Buddy Taylor Middle School.
“We clearly know that that particular kid was a copycat and operated on a dare. So my message to parents is be the sheriff in your home. Talk to your kids, your children. It’s a bigger person to walk away from a dare than to act on it,” Staly said.
Staly’s concern is that, in addition to the danger, copycats feed the ego of the main suspect.
“One of the things that these kind of callers want is they want the fame,” Staly said. “Unfortunately, this jerk is getting the fame that he’s looking for, which is why we are reducing what we are saying publically.”
In the video, Moore said support for students would be available after the “intensity of this week.”
“I know it has been a stressful week. It has been a stressful week for our students, our faculty, our staff as well as our sheriff’s department, but we are going to do everything in our power to ensure that our students have a great end of year,” Moore said.
Flagler County Schools said beginning Monday, May 20, if parents kept their children out of school in light of the events last week, it will be marked as an administrative excused absence.
As for next week, the district said if you still want to keep your child out of school, you must call your child’s school and let them know when and why they’ll be absent in order to receive the administrative excused absence.
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