Middle School Student Suspended Over Facebook Post

The family of a Tarpon Springs middle school student suspended from school because of a Facebook post is fighting the disciplinary action, according to WFla.com.

Attorney Mary Coburn is objecting to 12-year-old Savvas Milatos' suspension and a referral his family received to send the child to an alternative school. She described the school's response as an "extreme overreaction."

Police who investigated the complaint found "no credible threat."

According to WFla.com, the school district decline to comment.

Coburn told WFla.com that Savvas had made an indirect reference to a rumor his cousin told him about threats of a school shooting at Tarpon Springs High School. The post was made back in December.

According to WFla.com, Coburn said in an interview:

 "Savvas made a post on Facebook on Sunday the 16th basically saying ‘Why would anybody come to the high school and shoot anybody? What's the world coming to?' Something to that effect," Coburn said.

The boy took the post down, and it is unclear if school officials ever saw it. But they did hear about it.

According to WFla.com, while police were investigating rumors of a threat at the high school they learned about the middle schooler's post. They questioned the boy about it.

According to WFla.com:
In a handwritten statement for the school, Milatos said his cousin "had told me not to go to school on Friday" because of the shooting threat.

"I wrote it on Facebook," the statement said.

Yet police found "no credible threat," and the family is demanding that the child's school record be cleared. Coburn calls it a violation of his First Amendment rights.

Barabara Perkins told the news station that her son was just trying to have a conversation on Facebook.