Flagler sheriff urges parents to talk to kids after student arrest

PALM COAST, Fla. - The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office is urging parents to talk to their kids about the consequences of making school threats.

Sheriff Rick Staly tells FOX 35 News his office has seen an uptick in the last two months. 

The most recent arrest involved a student at Buddy Taylor Middle School. Investigators said the boy made a threat to shoot another student on the bus.

"We don’t take these threats lightly. If the probable cause was there to make the arrest, which we don’t like doing we will," said Sheriff Staly.

Wednesday, a school resource officer at BTMS talked with students about the consequences. Sheriff Staly said they wanted to re-enforce the topic amid the uptick.

"We thought it was important that we try to impress on the kids with the school resource deputies, these are the consequences and this is why you can’t do it," he said.

He said vetting threats is time-consuming and costly, but necessary to keep schools safe.

"Unfortunately if you don’t vet these you’re going to miss the one time that it was a serious threat," he said. 

The student in the most recent incident was charged with written threats to kill and taken into custody by the Department of Juvenile Justice.

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