Student Arrested For School Shooting Threat That Circulated Statewide

May 6, 2023

A student has been arrested following a social media post threatening a school shooting that would “make history as the top school slaughter”.

The Coral Springs Police Department said 18-year old Catrina Petit, a student at Taravella High School in that city, was charged with multiple felonies for threatening to commit a school shooting. Coral Springs is a city in southern Florida northwest of Fort Lauderdale.

“Petit sent the threat out fraudulently using another student’s name and computer access,” Coral Springs Police said in a statement. “The threat was later posted on social media causing concern in several counties throughout the state.”

The message made a threat to “shoot up the school” Friday morning at 7:40 as the bell rings or during the school day and “everyone must DIE”. The message suggested the presence of a bomb at the school. However, the message did not indicate any school or location; it only contains generalities.

The photo was further altered on social media questioning if the message might be related to Northview High School or other local schools in Escambia County.

The Escambia County Public Schools said Friday that it had been determined that the threat was not credible.

“District administration and law enforcement have worked together to make sure this was not a credible threat to our schools, students, and staff,” Superintendent Dr. Tim Smith said in a call-out to parents Friday morning. “In communication, with the Florida State Department of Education, we were also made aware that this same social media threat was made in several districts across the State of Florida.”

NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.

Comments

27 Responses to “Student Arrested For School Shooting Threat That Circulated Statewide”

  1. Bob on May 8th, 2023 11:04 am

    @Just Saying

    We had bad parents 50 years ago. We also had a robust mental health network that was systematically dismantled in the name of “saving money for taxpayers”.

    If you want to reduce the number of crazy, violent people out there? Open publicly funded addiction counseling services. Make our prisons rehabilitative instead of punitive. Expand access to mental healthcare resources. Increase wages and invest in affordable housing.

    If you want to make it harder for crazy, violent people to kill? Prevent them from accessing firearms with background checks, mandatory safety classes, and a national gun registry.

    There are meaningful steps that we can take to save children. But y’all aren’t interested in those. The best you can do is post “thoughts and prayers” on your Facebook page and wait until tomorrow’s shooting.

    It’s disgusting.

  2. John Bone Jones on May 8th, 2023 9:37 am

    guns don’t kill people… bullets do.

  3. TB on May 8th, 2023 9:06 am

    Make no mistake it’s bad parenting, I have never seen such rotten disrespectful children in my lifetime.
    8 year olds swearing at their parents and hitting them.
    Lazy parents using tablets and smartphones to occupy their kids while they do their own thing.
    Parent leaving the kids for the street to raise them while they go clubbing.
    We were involved in our children’s lives growing up and we kept them in public activities like softball, cheerleading over at the park by Truman Arms and school activities because we didn’t have much money back then but our kids were our life.
    We made sure that education was a priority and that they stayed in school and studied.
    The end result was they grew up decent, respectful and way more successful than we ever were.

  4. Someone on May 7th, 2023 8:06 pm

    Since people like to say “gun violence” do they call stabbings knife violence and car accidents car violence?

  5. David Huie Green on May 7th, 2023 2:43 pm

    “The message suggested the presence of a bomb at the school. However, the message did not indicate any school or location; it only contains generalities.”

    Interesting how many focused on guns when explosives were implied.

  6. David Huie Green on May 7th, 2023 2:39 pm

    contemplating:
    “NOTHING I DONE TO STOP IT”

    So you admit you “done nothing” to stop it? I guess that absolves the rest of us.

    Confusion between fame and infamy is part of the problem. People talk about some evil deed and those who want to be famous decide they can swing it by doing something evil too. Or they have some conflict and decide to settle it by murder.

    Before portable guns were common, folks often used bombs, knives, spears, poison, fire. Guns can at least be selective. If someone wants to kill me, they aren’t forced to kill everyone around me.

    David for better people and better armor

  7. Just Saying on May 7th, 2023 9:55 am

    @Joy, Josh Jones and Bob,

    Surely you guys aren’t ignorant enough to think that gun availability is the problem here. Guns are less available now than they were 40 and 50 years ago when EVERYBODY had multiple guns in their homes and vehicles.

    The problem is not the guns. The problem is lack of parenting and personal accountability that causes these kids to have mental problems that the parents sweep under the rug because , “hey, not my child “ and then they do horrible things like shooting up a school! Only people who “aren’t right in the head” do things like this. Don’t blame the guns for parent’s failings!

  8. mnon on May 7th, 2023 2:31 am

    LOL “ban guns” This will never happen in the US without a fight. If by some crazy miracle, the US Gov could even pull it off and we turned in every single gun. We’d just start killing each other with swords, spears, and bows again… Not to mention any other modern lethal means with electricity… Do you honestly think guns are the problem?

    People’s hearts are the problem, it is called the decay of society. It’s going to get even worse before it gets better; if it ever gets better. I’m not counting on that too much.

  9. Bob on May 6th, 2023 11:03 pm

    @JJ

    Japan plays more video games than us. We have more school shootings.

    The UK watches more TV than us. We have more school shootings.

    Super Mario Brothers isn’t killing our kids. Neither is Game of Thrones. Kids are getting shot with guns.

  10. JJ on May 6th, 2023 5:38 pm

    GUNS!GUNS!GUNS
    NO!NO! NO!
    likely all these video games and tv shows
    only gun that fired on its own was Alec Balwin.LOL

  11. Bob on May 6th, 2023 5:08 pm

    @Everyone in this comment section

    Guns don’t kill people. People kill people. Guns just make it significantly easier. I can quote statistics, point to other countries, show you common sense gun reform that would definitively save children’s lives, but we all know that you don’t care. If you actually cared about saving children’s lives, we would have passed gun reform after Columbine. Or Sandy Hook. Or Uvalde. Or after any of the other school shootings in the past decade. Instead, we decided that dead kids was a worthy sacrifice on the altar of “sHaLl nOt bE iNfRiNgEd”.

    Until you all decide that you actually *want* fewer dead kids in schools, there’s no point in trying to discuss a solution with you.

    @joy

    Thanks for trying. I appreciate that there is at least one other person in North Escambia that genuinely cares about children. I’m sorry that so many of our neighbors don’t.

  12. RWA on May 6th, 2023 4:42 pm

    I agree with JTV. I was also a student at Tate in the 70’s and it wasn’t uncommon to see a gun hanging in the back window of a truck. That was back when parent’s actually parented. You were taught manners and respect. Hopefully, become a productive member of society. There were consequences for your actions. Parents need to get back to parenting. Also, it’s sad that this person made it this far in school and can’t spell tomorrow correctly.

  13. anne on May 6th, 2023 1:42 pm

    Guess you have to be a certain age to remember guns in the window of the pickup trucks in the High School parking lot. We behaved at school back then and had respect for teachers, students and yes, the guns.

  14. Good grief! on May 6th, 2023 12:51 pm

    @joy,
    Do you have children? Are you one of those
    “not my child” parent. How about we hold PEOPLE accountable instead of inanimate objects. Are you for banning cars if someone gets hit and killed? No? Just guns? Got it

  15. JTV on May 6th, 2023 10:49 am

    Well joy, every truck at Tate high school back in the 70s had a gun in it. I don’t remember people shooting up schools. What did happen was God was removed from school, along with corporal punishment. Now there are a bunch of mental midgets out there being raised and they can’t cope with the world.

  16. Old school on May 6th, 2023 10:20 am

    Why does everyone blame the gun when it’s the person. For hundreds of years there was guns and no shootings.

  17. Welp. on May 6th, 2023 9:49 am

    @joy Uneducated people like you is the whole reason law abiding citizens need guns, to protect their constitutional rights, country, family, and own lives. By the way holsters don’t kill people. Lol people kill people.

  18. ftp on May 6th, 2023 9:47 am

    You can not blame the behavior of your child on the availability of guns! That is the problem with society today, no one wants to take responsibility of their actions! They want to blame it on someone or something else!

  19. Wow on May 6th, 2023 9:46 am

    Guns arent the problem, evil sick people are

  20. Well on May 6th, 2023 9:22 am

    Joy who the hell you hollering at ?

  21. L on May 6th, 2023 9:18 am

    The further we get away from Jesus in this world the worse it going to be.

  22. Stanley Beech on May 6th, 2023 9:16 am

    There are ways to stop these kind of things from happening, These kids want to prove they are tough, Florida already has the Death Penalty, so use it and make it public on National TV every Saturday, If they are suspected of a threat give them a trial, but if they are caught during a shooting, give them the Firing Squad the next week, Have it on National TV and trust me, the shootings will stop, So will other heinous crimes.

  23. fisherman on May 6th, 2023 9:13 am

    @Joy
    You need to explain in detail the meaning of your statement guns everywhere doesn’t make children misbehave. It takes someone to

    @Joy
    You need to clarify your post as it doesn’t make any sense. Guns everywhere doesn’t make children misbehave.

    @

  24. Josh Jones on May 6th, 2023 8:48 am

    @joy

    Amen!

  25. Donna on May 6th, 2023 8:39 am

    I’m sick of hearing that guns did this.. It’s not the guns availability that do the shooting its the person And why is it that my child doesn’t have those thoughts of shooting everyone up . Because i raised my child with love affection and discipline and I didn’t let some computer be the babysitter.
    I taught them that your character is your own responsibility it’s your OWN actions not the fault of anyone else but YOU
    its YOUR responsibility to achieve self respect….

    We have become a society that blames one’s action on everything else a society of excuses ..of why

  26. Old school on May 6th, 2023 8:11 am

    Yes joy it’s the gun always the gun not the person. I went to school we had guns in the back window of our trucks at school and school shootings never was heard of.

  27. joy on May 6th, 2023 7:16 am

    how do you expect your child to behave when guns are everywhere-and kids are killed in school – and now you can buy a holster or stick it in your pocket or purse and head to walmart! And the constant coverage as it happens almost every day and NOTHING I DONE TO STOP IT—and you go out and buy another gun because some liar on TV says they’re coming to take your guns away—you have created this