'Not credible' Rickards High School threat prompts heightened security at all Leon schools

An anonymous message mentioning a threatened shooting at Rickards High School Thursday has placed the Leon County School District on alert.

"I'm not sure if it's true but someone threatened to shoot up Rickards tomorrow," the screenshot message reads. "So if you attend the school please stay home. This (expletive) is the farthest thing from funny and this alone has encouraged me to enroll in FLVS (Florida Virtual School) permanently. Y'all playing with people's lives. That (expletive) is terrifying."

The message circulated on social media and between students on Tuesday, prompting a response from the district and the school's principal Douglas Cook.

"Law enforcement continues to track the posts that mentioned a shooting tomorrow at Rickards. Based on their investigation they have not found credible link to specific individuals regarding the threats listed in the post," Cook wrote.

He told parents any absences for Thursday would be excused and promised an increased law enforcement would be present on campus.

The district confirmed that the threat was "not credible" but out of an abundance of caution, the post would be taken seriously.

The post comes almost a week after four people were killed, nine were injured and  a 14-year-old boy  was arrested in the latest school shooting at a Georgia high school.

Since then, school districts in north Florida and Georgia have been grappling with a flurry of threats and social media posts that have spread fear.

On Wednesday, Wakulla County was also dealing with "unsubstantiated rumors circulating social media regarding possible threats to Wakulla County's schools."

"Upon receiving these reports WCSO immediately began investigating and looking into these reports, which thus far have not been found to be credible," the Wakulla County Sheriff's Office wrote on Facebook. "However in an abundance of caution working with our partners at the Wakulla County Schools there will be an increased WCSO and security presence at Wakulla County Schools today and for the immediate future."

To be proactive, district spokesperson Chris Petley said all schools have a heightened security presence on campus for Thursday and Friday.

"There will be an enhanced security in and around all the schools. So, what that will look like is different for each school so there will be additional sheriff's deputies in all schools and TPD (Tallahassee Police Department) will have more officers riding around and patrolling the neighborhoods that surround our school," Petley told the Tallahassee Democrat early Thursday morning.

The district has been vigilant in its efforts to curb the presence of weapons in its campus by installing AI weapons detection in its security cameras, anonymous alerting, metal detectors and its weapon sniffing dog Tango. So far there have been four incidents where students have been arrested for having weapons on campus, ranging from a loaded gun to a kitchen knife to a stun gun.

How to make an anonymous tip

• To make a tip online in Leon County, visit  https://tips.anonymousalerts.com/leoncountyschools/ , to fill out a form.

• To make a tip by phone call the district's 24-hour security office, which is a monitored on a recorded line at (850) 922-5437.

• Email tips to  922kids@leonschools.net  and tips can be made on the district's anonymous alerts app.

Alaijah Brown covers children & families for the Tallahassee Democrat. She can be reached at ABrown1@gannett.com . Follow her on Twitter/X: @AlaijahBrown3 . 

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Leon Schools on alert after anonymous shooting threat