Orange City, FL – Hundreds of students were no-shows at a Volusia County high school the day after a student there admitted to deputies that she made a sarcastic comment on social media about shooting up the school.
Around 1,600 students at University High School either didn’t come to class or checked out early on Thursday, most doing so because of a threat made on Instagram the night before, according to Volusia County Schools.
VCS spokeswoman Nancy Wait says the school – based in Orange City – has an estimated student population of 2,800 and that the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office was called in to investigate the threat.
VCSO investigators determined there was no general threat to the school or its students and faculty but did say the threat came from a female student who was in an Instagram fight with 2 other girls on Wednesday night.
The Instagram post read in part “Students at UHS, better bring ur runnin shoes, cause were gunna get shot at tomorrow,” according to the incident report.
Deputies managed to track the post to the 15-year-old Deltona girl who wrote it and she claimed it was a “sarcastic remark” made after someone threatened to shoot her 16-year-old friend.
VCSO says investigators talked with both girls’ parents and each claimed their daughters did not have or could get access to a weapon.
The 16-year-old told VCSO that the fight started over a picture posted on Instagram and that she didn’t know the person who threatened to shoot her, but she did admit to trying to arrange a meeting with that person so she could fight her.
Deputies are trying to locate that person as part of the investigation but they don’t have much else to work with at this time other than a screen name, per the report.
Extra deputies were stationed at the school on Thursday in response to concerns from parents after the threat started spreading on social media. Messages were also sent to parents just before classes begun on Thursday, according to Wait.
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.