Teen sentenced to 15 years for shooting alleged bully at Seminole High
A teen has been handed a 15-year-prison sentence for shooting a fellow Seminole High School student he said had bullied him.
The sentence against Da’Raveius Smith, who was 16 at the time of the shooting and later was charged as an adult, came after Smith pleaded no contest to attempted murder and related charges. Following his prison time, Smith will be placed on five years probation, according to a plea agreement.
Seminole High was put on lockdown following the Jan. 19, 2022 incident, when Smith shot 18-year-old Jhavon McIntyre several times before tossing the gun and waiting for Sanford police to take him into custody.
Court records indicate that Smith and McIntyre had each accused the other of bullying.
The records say rumors circulated on campus that Smith had taunted McIntyre over the death of his brother, which Smith denied.
Smith told police that McIntyre, a cornerback for the high school football team, had threatened to attack him on social media and attempted to jump him at school, though McIntyre’s mother said she was unaware of a feud between the two boys, according to court records.
An affidavit notes that Smith fired at McIntyre during a confrontation in a school bathroom, but records don’t mention what they talked about before the shots were fired.
McIntyre filed a lawsuit against the Seminole County School Board months after the shooting, accusing administrators of not informing his parents that Smith had twice threatened to shoot him in the days leading up to Jan. 19, including one threat made outside of the school in front of a school principal. According to the complaint, McIntyre was interviewed by school resource officers, who sent him back to class when he said he was unsure that Smith actually had a weapon.
The lawsuit further accuses an unnamed school administrator of running past McIntyre “in the opposite direction” after he was shot.
A 17-page motion to dismiss the case filed by school board attorneys argues administrators don’t have a duty to inform parents about threats involving their children, especially after a student becomes a legal adult at 18, which McIntyre was at the time of the shooting. The motion disputes McIntyre’s claim that he was a victim of bullying, citing a deposition in which he’s said to have testified that he had never been bullied or felt threatened by Smith.
A hearing on the motion to dismiss is scheduled for Aug. 12.
