PALATKA, Fla. — Three Putnam County students are facing charges after threatening violence at schools in separate incidents, according to the Putnam County Sheriff's Office.
The agency said a 13-year-old boy and 14-year-old boy at Mellon Learning Center were arrested and charged with false report of a weapon of mass destruction.
During the school day, the 13 year old began making a gun out of clay and other items, police said, later pointing the clay gun at another student. When a teacher approached him and said that what he was doing was inappropriate, the student told the teacher he would bring his shotgun and ammunition to school Friday.
When the 13 year old was being removed from the class, a 14 year old "made the comment that he would bring his gun too," the sheriff's office said. Sheriff Gator DeLoach called the behavior "reprehensible."
"They clearly do not care that they have received chances to improve and so they can spend some time at the Department of Juvenile Justice," DeLoach stated. "If they continue at this level the prison system is where they will spend the majority of their lives."
Both were booked into the Putnam County Jail and taken to the Department of Juvenile Justice in Daytona.
In a separate incident, an 11-year-old girl was arrested and charged with bringing a weapon to school Thursday morning. A student told Browning Pearce Elementary School administration that another student had a knife in her backpack. During the investigation, deputies learned the student was planning to use the knife on a student who was talking to her boyfriend, the sheriff's office said.
The student was arrested and taken to the Putnam County Jail and released to her parents as the charges did not qualify for acceptance to the Department of Juvenile Justice, the sheriff's office said.
The three arrests follow a spate of school threats in the area including Palatka Jr.-Sr. High, Putnam Academy of Arts and Sciences and Interlachen Jr.-Sr. High.
