MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — Manatee County law enforcement completed a sweep of Parrish Community High School after what Manatee County Administrator Dr. Scott Hopes called a "significant" bomb threat.
The Manatee County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday morning, school leaders safely evacuated students from Parrish Community High School to a safe location following multiple bomb threats. The Sheriff's Office said a comprehensive search found no explosive devices.
During a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Sheriff Rick Wells said these threats have come through the Fortify Florida app. The app allows users to submit anonymous tips.
Wells said the problem that they're having is when people use the app, the host site might not be in the state of Florida.
"It pushes the information through one host site that's in California. We’ve located an IP address out of California. We’ve got subpoenas out there now trying to gather that information," said Wells. "We believe at one point, they used a different VPN that you can get online, and that IP address was pushed through a host site in Romania.”
The students were taken to the football field at the school. Dr. Hopes initially said students were going to be taken off campus to a reunification point where parents would pick them up. However, Mike Barber of Manatee County Schools said the kids were not taken off campus Tuesday.
Parents were confused as some went to the reunification point at the Manatee County fairgrounds, only to be turned around and sent back to the school.
"It’s very concerning, and now I'm kind of to the point where I’m like should we just transfer or should she go back to online school? So that’s where I’m at right now," said Chris Makapedua, a parent.
Willie Clark, Executive Director of Secondary Schools, said law enforcement took less time checking the campus than expected, so they changed the pickup location back to the school.
"Because at the time we thought it was going to take approximately six hours to clear the building, we were moving them to an off-site location to where it would be more conducive," said Superintendent Cynthia Saunders. "Once we knew that they could speed up the clearance of the campus, it was deemed that it would be quicker and easier for them to check their kids out here."
Barber said students went back into the school Tuesday afternoon and started going through normal dismissal procedures starting at 2:25 p.m.
“We’re on day five or six of the trauma that these kids have gone through," said Aldo Cruz, a parent.
Sheriff Wells said since February 1st, they have had four bomb threats at Parrish Community High School. Monday, the school posted on Facebook that they received an "anonymous threat."
Some students said recent threats have them on edge.
“Very upsetting," said 11th grader Gabriella Cruz. "I didn’t necessarily want to come to school today or any bit this week because it’s just unnerving.”
Last week, the school made three separate posts about lockdowns.
In one post, they stated that their system was accidentally triggered and it was a "false alarm." Another cited that two separate lockdowns were the result of "medical emergencies," and a third posted a day later said that the threat was "unsubstantiated."
"To the parents of our community, I need for you to seriously sit down and talk to your children about making idle threats, any threats whatsoever. When we find those that are responsible, we are going to put them in jail. They are going to be charged with a felony. And that felony is going to stay with them for the rest of their life," said Sheriff Wells.
Crime Stoppers of Manatee County is offering a $500 reward for information leading to an arrest related to these threats. To remain anonymous and be eligible for this reward, contact Crime Stoppers at (866) 634-TIPS or submit a tip at manateecrimestoppers.com
