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Hillsborough County public schools have faced nearly two hundred school shooting threats since the deadly shooting at a high school in Georgia this month.
Top officials call it frustrating.
There have been 181 threats made in Hillsborough schools alone since September 4th.
Superintendent Van Ayres says it’s more than ever before.
“Enough is enough. These false threats against our schools have got to stop.” Ayres said.
Nine students have been arrested so far., and Chief of Emergency Management for Hillsborough schools John Newman says the threats impact all students.
“So these kids are victims, as well, of these bogus threats because they don’t know if they want to go to school. They’re telling their moms and dads ‘I’m afraid to go.’ And that’s a legitimate concern,” Newman said.
A middle schooler says she jokingly threatened her school earlier this month.
She is now facing a felony charge for a Written or Electronic Threat to Conduct a Mass Shooting.
Newman says resources are being wasted on bogus threats, but police still have to investigate them.
“So if your kid has been studying for an exam for two weeks, or has something exciting that’s going to happen in school today – some knucklehead is making a bogus threat that totally ruined the normal instructional and operation of that campus for today. How unfair is that?”
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