Students face expulsion, criminal charges after Alachua schools hit with ‘threats, evacuations, vandalism’

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Superintendent warns students ‘consequences tin earnestly impact their future, successful schoolhouse and beyond’

File photograph of Alachua County Public Schools District Office.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A bid of threats and vandalism, spawned from societal media trends, has been plaguing Alachua County Public Schools, according to superintendent Dr. Carlee Simon.

In a connection posted to the district’s Facebook leafage Wednesday, Simon said the interaction of these incidents is not lone affecting the schoolhouse community.

A spokesperson for the territory confirmed Thursday determination person been 3 evacuations astatine Buchholz High School, 4 astatine Newberry High School, 1 astatine Oak View Middle School, 1 astatine Gainesville High School and 1 astatine Eastside High School owed to assorted types of threats.

After News4Jax talked to the spokesperson, different weaponry menace led to an evacuation astatine Gainesville High School astir 12:30 p.m., according to the Gainesville Police Department.

“This has affected clip successful school, extracurricular activities, entree to schoolhouse facilities and the quality of section instrumentality enforcement officers to bash their jobs. It’s besides created a batch of anxiousness for students, families and staff,” Simon’s connection said.

Simon besides warned that the recourse for specified behaviour would beryllium fierce, saying that disciplinary action, including expulsion, has already been taken against students recovered to beryllium involved. Some, she added, person besides faced transgression charges.

“Sometimes young radical don’t admit however superior this behaviour tin be,” Simon’s connection said. “They whitethorn see it a joke. They whitethorn presume their societal media postings volition stay private, oregon that they won’t beryllium penalized due to the fact that of their age. This is not true. The consequences tin earnestly impact their future, successful schoolhouse and beyond.”

At Newberry High School, the field was evacuated astatine slightest 4 abstracted times, including connected Sept. 23, 24 and 27, owed to reported weaponry threats connected campus. All 3 threats were investigated and yet cleared by instrumentality enforcement. The societal media posts for 3 of the incidents tin beryllium seen below.

Newberry High students are being evacuated to West Park owed to a weaponry menace portion instrumentality enforcement sweeps the school. Parents whitethorn prime up their students, but it is not required. We volition station updates.

— Alachua Schools (@AlachuaSchools) September 23, 2021

Newberry High School students are again being evacuated owed to a weaponry menace portion instrumentality enforcement sweeps the school.

— Alachua Schools (@AlachuaSchools) September 24, 2021

NHS students are again being evacuated to West Park owed to a weaponry threat, but volition not beryllium allowed to permission aboriginal unless signed retired by an authorized parent/guardian. Students volition instrumentality to people erstwhile instrumentality enforcement has completed a expanse of the field & fixed the each clear.

— Alachua Schools (@AlachuaSchools) September 27, 2021

The district’s spokesperson, Jackie Johnson, confirmed a BHS pupil was caught and is facing expulsion. Johnson said astatine slightest 2 different students are facing expulsion owed to vandalism that’s believed to beryllium related to the TikTok inclination known arsenic ‘devious licks.’

“There is simply a ineligible process we person to travel earlier expelling students, including support astatine a nationalist gathering by the schoolhouse board, truthful I don’t judge anyone has been expelled yet--we’re inactive successful the process,” Johnson said. “Also, if and erstwhile much students are caught for immoderate of these incidents, the fig of those facing expulsion is apt to grow.”

Some of the incidents did not impact existent threats, but alternatively unfounded rumors connected societal media, which nevertheless required unit and instrumentality enforcement unit to analyse and code the concern with students and families.

The superintendent said that the territory includes net information and integer citizenship successful the program for students, utilizing teaching tools from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s NetSmartz program. The program’s online statement says it “provides age-appropriate videos and activities to assistance thatch children beryllium safer online with the extremity of helping children to go much alert of imaginable online risks and empowering them to assistance forestall victimization by making safer choices on- and offline.”

Simon encouraged parents to sermon with their children the imaginable consequences of their online enactment and however to interact with others connected the internet.

“The immense bulk of our students volition beryllium spending a important magnitude of clip online for the remainder of their lives,” Simon’s connection concluded. “We beryllium it to them to supply the tools they’ll request to navigate and enactment successful the integer satellite responsibly and safely.”

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