17-Year-Old Arrested for Electronic Threat Against Manatee High School, Florida

A 17-year-old student was arrested at Manatee High School in Bradenton, FL, after allegedly sending a threat via another student's school app account.

Teen Arrested After Using Classmate's Login to Send School Threat in Bradenton

A 17-year-old student at Manatee High School in Bradenton, Florida, was arrested Tuesday after allegedly accessing a fellow student's account on the school district's app to send a threatening message, mysuncoast.com reports.

Bradenton police were notified Monday evening of a threat transmitted earlier that day through MySDMC Focus, the student information system used by the School District of Manatee County. Officers initially contacted the student whose account had been used, but investigators determined it had been accessed by someone else using stolen login credentials.

By Tuesday morning, detectives had gathered sufficient evidence to identify the 17-year-old as the individual behind the message. The suspect was detained at Manatee High School, questioned with parental permission, and subsequently arrested. He faces a charge of making a written or electronic threat to kill or do bodily injury, a second-degree felony.

"It's a second-degree felony — he made a threat against a school, a school official, and also to take terroristic action towards that school," police stated. "That's something that we take absolutely seriously."

As a precautionary measure, additional officers were deployed to Manatee High School on Tuesday to supplement school resource officers already on campus.

"We had officers in the area today just in case there was more to it," police said. "We were pretty confident that we had everything identified and that the threat would not be carried out."

Bradenton police emphasized in a social media post that all online threats — including those sent via text message or app, and even those intended as pranks or jokes — are investigated as credible. Authorities reminded the public that potential threats can be reported through the FortifyFL app, and that 911 should be called for immediate emergencies.

Source: Law & Crime