A student has been arrested after deputies received two complaints regarding threats made to bomb Central High School in Hernando County.
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Deputies say the student was playing an online trivia game application called "Game Show." During the game, a comment was posted on the messaging screen by a player which read "I am going to set off an explosive at Central High School, spring hill florida tomorrow." Players took screenshots of the comment and notified Hernando County Sheriff's Office.
Deputies responded to the school to meet with administrators regarding the incident.
Detectives linked the username of the account to a student at Springstead High School. Deputies responded to the student's home and searched the student and the home. Nothing out of the ordinary was found at the home, according to deputies. The student told deputies that a friend of their's was using the username in the game. Deputies responded to the home of the second student who admitted to making the threat, saying it was only a "joke."
The student was arrested on the felony charge of Intimidation, Write or Send Threats to Kill or Injure.
The student was transported to the Detention Center and then transferred to the Department of Juvenile Justice in Ocala.
The FBI also received notification of the threat through internal intelligence gathering. The FBI contacted the Hernando County Sheriff's Office and was in the preliminary stages of assisting Hernando County with the investigation. Resources with the FBI were canceled due to the quick action and response from the Hernando County sheriff's Office.
"There is nothing funny - or cute - or cool - about threatening violence, regardless of the intention. Parents, teachers, and students need to have open and frank discussions. They need to talk about the foolishness and stupidity of mentioning such things as -- bringing a gun to school or threatening to set off a bomb. Many young people do not understand the emotional and financial cost to the community of these intentionally false reports. Unfortunately, these criminal charges will also forever change the life of the suspect. The only effective deterrent will be positive peer pressure. Fellow students must, for example, talk about how idiotic and foolish it is to even consider making such statements, even when those statements are supposedly made as a cruel "joke"" said Sheriff Al Nienhuis.
