A 12-year-old girl from Clermont was arrested for posting a threatening Snapchat video in which she swore to “shoot up” her middle school.
A deputy responded to the residence of a female juvenile, whose name is being withheld because she is a minor, on Monday morning regarding the FBI calling with information about a school threat posted on Snapchat, according to an arrest report from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
The deputy spoke over the phone with the complainant who stated he received information provided by Snapchat in reference to a flagged post. The post was a nine-second video depicting an unknown female, later found to be the juvenile, talking about wanting to “crash out” at school because her teacher had not taught the information yet and a test was approaching, the report said.
Along with the video, there was a text bar over it stating, “istg imma shoot up ma school (fbi istg im not gonna).” The video at that time was not described as being posted as a story or sent privately. The complainant provided a screenshot of a white screen with a pink bow filter icon in the top right corner and the text box visible. He was able to send a copy of the screenshot to the deputy, the report said.
The complainant further advised that he was able to use the Snapchat account information to determine the possible location of the user. The account had only the username and birthday which later matched the juvenile’s information, the report said.
The deputy responded to the residence at the location and met with the juvenile’s mother along with her mother’s husband and his adult daughter. After the deputy explained why he was there, the adult daughter went into a bedroom and began yelling at the juvenile, waking her up and taking her phone. She returned with it and was able to provide the video in question, the report said.
It was posted as a story under the juvenile’s account earlier that night prior to her going to sleep. The juvenile advised that she was currently taking an accelerated math class at Windy Hill Middle School, located at 3575 Hancock Road, which she was struggling with. The workload given by the teacher was an excessive amount that was difficult to keep up with, causing her emotional distress, the report said.
The juvenile was unsure of how to express her feelings and ultimately just thought saying what she did would express how she felt. She did not have any intention of carrying out the threat and did not have access to any weapons, nor did she know anyone who would have access to weapons, the report said.
An undisclosed resident at the home reiterated that the family did not own any weapons and could not legally have them. Both this person and the juvenile provided affidavits, the report said.
The deputy recorded the posted Snapchat and uploaded it to evidence. The juvenile was placed under arrest and taken to the Lake County Jail without incident on charge of written threats to kill (school threat), the report said.
The school resource officer for Windy Hill Middle School, as well as the supervisors, were made aware of the incident. A handle with care was completed for the incident, and the result of the investigation was given to the FBI, the report said.
