An 11-year-old girl was booked at the Flagler County jail on two felony and a misdemeanor charge after allegedly placing a 911 call on Thursday claiming there was an ongoing shooting at Rymfire Elementary, the school she attends. She was not detained at the jail but turned over to the Department of Juvenile Justice.
The 911 call at 10:11 a.m. Thursday, in essence a form of “swatting” involving an entire school, triggered an immediate and serious law enforcement response to the school and a brief lockdown there, according to her arrest report.
The girl later claimed that a student in her class told her to call 911 and make up the story of a shooting, though she said he did not tell her to say what turned out to be somewhat detailed information to the dispatcher.
In the call, the girl identified herself as “Titus” (not her real name), that she was hearing multiple gunshots, that she was in “Mr. Fox’s room” (she was not: her classroom was across the way), and that no one in the classroom was hurt, but that she could still hear shots coming from “downstairs.” When the dispatcher asked the girl to put her teacher on the phone, the girl hung up.
The teacher the girl had referred to of course reported nothing out of the ordinary in his classroom, nor did anyone else on campus.
A deputy tried 25 times to call the cell number that had registered at the 911 center, but either it would go to voice mail or it would be answered with a hang-up. When Assistant Principal Doug Glasco added the phone number to his SnapChat account, it connected to a certain child. Glasco had the registrar’s office run the same through the district’s database. It proved to be a student at Flagler Palm Coast High School. That student had two siblings at Rymfire. One of them turned out to be the girl who placed the 911 call: her phone rang when, in the principal’s office, a deputy or an administrator placed a call to it.
Her mother was contacted and summoned to the school, but in the initial deputy interview of the girl in her mother’s presence, her mother got too upset as the girl was being evasive. Her mother left the room. At that point the girl became more cooperative, describing the incident.
“This student learned the hard way that we do not tolerate false reports, especially of an active shoot on a school campus,” Sheriff Rick Staly was quoted as saying in a release. “Here is a great example to the youth that threats are not a joke, and pranking law enforcement is a crime. We take all threats very seriously and they will not be tolerated. This fake call required multiple deputies to respond to the school taking deputies away from responding to other calls. Parents please talk to your children about making threats and be the Sheriff in your home. Threats are not a joke and making one will get you arrested.”
The girl faces charges of making a false report of a bomb, misuse of the 911 system and interfering with a school function.
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ASF says
This girl is screaming for help and DFC should be investigating her home environment immediately. Her mother left the room because SHE (mom) was “too upset”–Really????
Bob J. says
Where is the mental health issue?
She is 11. says
Why wasn’t this child provided with immediate mental health services? Instead, due to a prank phone call she is arrested and charged with multiple felonies. Once determined there was no emergency this should have gone to children’s crisis mental health services or doesn’t Flagler county have that due to all the Republicans underfunding social service programs?
A case through DCF should’ve been opened and an in investigator immediately sent to the child’s home.
Too many things like this are treated by law enforcement that should be mostly handled by social workers who should work alongside law enforcement.
The police treated this child like a hardened criminal.
What she did was clearly wrong but she’s 11 years old.
Did anyone think that there could be something going on in her home life that could be causing this behavior? She could have a diagnosable mental health problem or be a victim of abuse of some kind.
This was an opportunity for Sheriff Staley to use this as a teaching moment yet it turned into an example of poor judgment.
She is eleven years old.
Get social services involved.
She made a false claim. She is 11 years old.
How old was Kyle Rittenhouse? Oh, 18, and how many people did he shoot dead at a peaceful protest? Boy, he sure received a lot of donations to his legal defense for his felony of cold blooded, premeditated murder. BTW his own Mother aided and abetted those murders and was an accomplice. I saw video of cops just standing around acting like they all of a sudden lost their eyesight and hearing. After he COMMITTED MURDER, and just let him leave without confrontation so his Mama could take him to get a cheeseburger. We know who contributed to his defense.
This town….
Jimbo99 says
She was handled appropriately. For the rest or any of it to move forward with DCF, Social Workers, etc., this had to be taken out of the parent’s hands. One has to have faith in the system to correct this. Take the story on the arsonist that everyone claims is a rehabilitated 27 year old arsonist. He gets his 1 year in jail, the 11 year old won’t see that and if she can be on good behavior this probably goes away as a the 1st, last & only prank phone call. If there is a problem in the home, they’ll learn of it, because she may make those accusations to get out of a max punishment situation. They’re going to have to determine whether or not she’s lying about anything going forward for really anything ? Crying wolf, yelling fire in a crowded theater, not a good reputation to have, but it’s where we are in the moment of this situation. Other possibilities, to be more popular, did another child convince her to make the phone call ? They’re going to have to sift thru this to determine what her issues really are ? While it may seem harsh for charges, they are necessary to get to the bottom of it all. The harsher they deal with it, she’s going to have to realize it’s not a game.
Dennis says
Follow the process. Step by step. Get a life.
L Hilyard says
ANY threat to a school should be treated as a serious crime regardless of the age of the perpetrator. The juvenile should be hauled out in public and arrested – later any mitigating circumstances can be revealed and if justified the juvenile could be released. The important lesson for both kids and parents is that this behavior will NOT be tolerated without sever consequences.
Jimbo99 says
What a way to start the Labor Day weekend & the rest of her life & for the family.
Nope says
Every single thing you said here is not true. Stay in your lane.
Alexa Smythe says
At the same time there were 2 to 3 deputies lined up having nice conversations with each other around multiple locations around Palm Coast. So what’s the harm of the other twelve units having to respond to the school? They were actually doing something for those few minutes.
A.j says
Was she Black or White? Sound like she is Blsck, straight to jail. A prank call you go to jail. Com.itt murder police standing around, you are white you are male out in the street again.
Mary Fusco says
It has nothing to do with her color. Why does an 11 YO need a phone in school? Amazingly, back in the stone age all of my children went through K-12 and college without a phone. Believe it or not, they were in school to learn. Society is so screwed up with social media and cell phones that they will never be able to come out from under this stupid B S.
FlaglerBear says
Stop treating some juveniles like they’re sweet delicate little flowers! Many of them can handle semi-automatic weapons better than you. Protocol dictates that when one does something idiotic like trigger a full on armed response by law enforcement to a school, that person shall be taken into custody for the appropriate charges, quickly booked through the local jail and then sent to a juvenile facility. It’s then up to the system to determine if that juvenile needs mental health services once it gets to court. More often than not, a juvenile judge will order an evaluation. It’s not the job of the school, society, or the police to be parents is it? But that’s exactly how it’s been, and it needs to stop. Parents need to step up and accept their role in society.