Person of interest identified in Mandarin High bomb threat

Duval County School Police say they have identified a person of interest, in the bomb threat at Mandarin High yesterday.

The threat was posted on social media Wednesday night, and prompted the District to let parents know Thursday morning that the school had been swept, and students would undergo additional screening when getting to the campus.

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Later in the day, students were evacuated from the school, and had to sit out on the football field bleachers- in the sun and roughly 91 degree heat- until a slightly delayed dismissal.

Thursday evening, the Duval County Superintendent sent Mandarin High parents a message admitting that things didn’t run as smooth as they would have hoped, but she said the District, Police, and School staff had already debriefed, in an effort to do better.

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Now, a message sent to parents by Duval County School Police Director Michael Edwards says they have identified a person of interest connected to that threat. He says the investigation is still ongoing, so there is no additional information yet available on who that person is.

Edwards says it’s a good time for parents to remind their children that Police take every threat to school safety seriously, including what is put on social media.

“Let them know that we do capture the people that are responsible for these types of threatening messages, and there are serious legal consequences,” Edwards says.

He wants to encourage students to continue reporting anything dangerous or suspicious that they see, so it can be investigated. He further promised to continue improving how they handle these incidents.

“The situation yesterday taught us much about how we can better interact with you and make decisions in these situations,” Edwards says.

Mandarin High students faced even more additional screening when they got to the campus Friday morning.

The District confirms they received a text exchange, which suggested a possible school shooting, so they used metal detector wands to search all students as they arrived today.

A homecoming pep rally that had been scheduled for this afternoon was called off, but the homecoming football game was allowed to take place.

Cox Media Group