Police searching for culprit after hoax threats made against schools throughout Florida

A rash of hoax threats affected schools in at least half a dozen Florida counties this week, putting students, families and law enforcement agencies on high alert.

Authorities responded to “a report of an armed subject” at Boca Raton High School before 10 a.m. Tuesday, the city police department said in a tweet, quickly noting that officers arrived to find “no evidence of a shooting” or an armed person.

School district and law enforcement leaders also confirmed similar reports involving schools in Miami-Dade, Broward, St. Lucie, Collier and Sarasota counties on the same day.

Live coverage of Cruz trial: Nikolas Cruz sentencing trial live updates: Defense - Parkland shooter is 'broken, brain-damaged'

Threats extend to Sarasota: Police clear school after responding to active shooter report at Riverview High

Boca police said Thursday that they're still searching for the person responsible.

Edwin Lopez, chief of the Miami-Dade Schools Police Department, said someone targeted three high schools with “hoax threats to shoot up the schools” and that detectives are now “working the case aggressively” to find a culprit.

“We’re in the onset of the investigation now, but preliminary reports are that these threats are coming in from the same source,” he said.

Florida schools dealt with a similar influx of threats after the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

And on Tuesday, as schools grappled with new threats and lockdowns, jurors returned to a Fort Lauderdale courtroom for closing arguments in the sentencing trial of Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz. They began deliberating Wednesday.

Lopez said he had no indication that Tuesday’s threats had any connection to the trial. They did, however, remind him of the false 911 calls that followed the tragedy in Parkland.

Since that time, Miami-Dade and other school districts in Florida have joined the FBI in sharing a “Think Before You Post” campaign, reminding people that it’s a federal crime to make such threats.

"These types of calls pose a big problem for us here in law enforcement because it drains our resources," Lopez said.

The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office investigated a call about an active shooter at Riverview High School and deemed it a “swatting” incident.

Swatting is a form of harassment in which someone falsely reports an emergency to trick law enforcement — especially heavily armed SWAT teams — to descend on a school, home, business or other location.

What is swatting? False active shooter calls clog law enforcement, terrify schools and communities

Investigators at the Collier County Sheriff's Office, which responded to a false call about an active shooter at Palmetto Ridge High School, said they knew of similar calls involving at least 16 Florida schools Tuesday.

"We investigate each call thoroughly, including hoax and swatting calls, and will hold those responsible accountable to the fullest," the agency said in a Facebook post.

Lydia Martin, a spokesperson for St. Lucie Public Schools, confirmed that law enforcement received a call about an active shooter at Fort Pierce Central High.

Authorities quickly determined it was a hoax, largely because of the similar threats being made around Florida at the same time, she said.

And in Broward County, the school district placed every high school on "secure status" while police investigated "threats to various campuses," according to a message sent to families.

Police cleared the schools and each campus returned to normal operations.

"Our agency will continue to investigate the source of the swatting call," the Pembroke Pines Police Department said on Twitter after clearing one of several schools.

Giuseppe Sabella is an education reporter at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at gsabella@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism and subscribe today. 

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Hoax threats target schools in multiple counties in Florida