Only on 9: Mother speaks out after her 11-year-old receives school shooting threats

KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Kissimmee Police are investigating after they got word of a school shooting threat.

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The case happened over the weekend when an 11-year-old received messages from an unknown phone number.

“Anytime someone calls her phone or sends a text message to her phone, she immediately brings me the phone, and she is afraid to answer her phone,” said the mother of the 11-year-old, who preferred to remain anonymous when she spoke exclusively with Channel 9. “It is concerning that people can send threats to a child’s phone, scaring her, because she was in fear to go to school.”

The messages started on August 23rd, but initially, the family did not think much about them, only responding, ‘You have the wrong number.’

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However, a few days later, more messages came through. One of them said, “You go to Denn John? I am going shoot up your school”.

The person even sent a picture of a school bus and a driver. “We don’t know if someone’s joking, and we don’t know if they’re serious, but I think it’s better to be safe than sorry. I would hate for something to happen, and I received text messages and was unable to do something,” the woman said.

The mother then contacted the police, reporting the case to both the Orlando Police Department and the Kissimmee Police Department.

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“We’ve been following up leads on the phone number that came up. Without going into too much detail, it really is tracking all over Central Florida, and we have incorporated using the assistance from other jurisdictions, as far as Seminole County and using CFIX [Central Florida Intelligence Exchange] as well,” said Captain Daniel Schad, with the Criminal Investigations Division at the Kissimmee Police Department.

As the investigations continue, KPD heightened security at a slew of school campuses in the city since Monday.

“We have already allocated resources to stay within the school grounds, on the exterior and the interior of the school, and then our intelligence and our criminal investigations detectives,” said Captain Schad. “We have a vast amount of resources that we throw at it.

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And when you multiply that times the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, the Saint Cloud Police Department, and all the other agencies up in Orange County and both school boards, we have plenty of actually, technology and people to throw at it.”

Denn John Middle School is part of the Osceola County School District. They sent the following statement to Channel 9:

Osceola County Schools continues to encourage students and parents that, if they see or hear anything that poses a threat, to say something. The district will always listen and work with law enforcement to investigate and ensure the safety of the students and staff.

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The threats came just days after the deadly massacre in Georgia that left two students and two teachers dead.

The mother now hopes other parents can learn from her experience. “Please, please, look at your children’s phone and any kind of threats that are made. Don’t take it lightly because you never know what could happen,” she said. So far, no one has been arrested in the case.

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