Ridgewood High Student’s Arrest Serves as Reminder, Superintendent Says

NEW PORT RICHEY, FL — The Wednesday arrest of a 15-year-old Ridgewood High School student serves as a reminder that making violent threats can have serious consequences, Pasco County’s school superintendent says.

“It breaks my heart that a 15-year-old student’s future is in jeopardy because he made a false threat to shoot up his school, especially after we widely publicized the new ‘Terroristic Threats’ law and pleaded with parents to talk to their kids about its serious consequences,” Superintendent Kurt Browning said in a statement released after the Tuesday arrest.

According to the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office, the teen told students not to come to Ridgewood because he intended to “shoot up the school.” The boy’s threat was verified by a school staff member, leading to his Nov. 2 arrest on a charge of making a false report to use a firearm in a violent manner, an email from the sheriff’s office said. The charge is a second-degree felony.

The new state law under which the boy was charged went into effect on Oct. 1. The Anti-Terrorist Threat and Public Servant Protection Law makes it a crime to threaten school shootings even in jest.

“I will take this opportunity to once again ask all parents to make it clear that it’s not okay to joke about school shootings,” Browning said. “Such threats are not a laughing matter and neither are their legal consequences.”

Patch is not naming the boy due to his age.

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