Parents Keeping Students Home from School Following Alleged Social Media Threats

Several parents of students at First Coast High School are sharing a Facebook post that has them scared for their children’s safety. Some parents tell Action News they will keep their kids home for the last week of school.

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[Bridget] Vannoy said her daughter informed her that gang members at her school are threatening to shoot white children.

“Very disturbing. I’ve decided not to let my daughter go to school next week because of this,” she said. “Don’t know whether it’s a sick prank or whether it’s true whether it’s rumors that kids have made up.”

This information was so disturbing to Vannoy, she wrote a post about it on Facebook. It’s now been shared by many parents who said they’re afraid to send their kids to school.

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“We are aware,” said [Duval County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Nikolai] Vitti. “As I said earlier, there’s quite a few threats and they happen daily, not just at the end of the year, and every time we learn something like that we take a proactive approach.”

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“First Coast is one of our targeted schools where we have additional personnel, so we have an all hands on deck mentality right now. Every person available that could prevent something from happening is out in the field right now,” Vitti said.

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[Editor’s Note: First Coast High School is 54 percent black, 35 percent white, and 5 percent Hispanic.]