Threat to Manatee School for the Arts being investigated but not considered credible

A threat to Manatee School for the Arts in Palmetto is under investigation, but school officials never deemed it a credible threat because it listed dates that do no exist.

On Friday, the Palmetto Police Department was called to Manatee School for the Arts, 700 Haben Blvd., Palmetto, after a vague note threatening a shooting was discovered on the wall of a bathroom stall, Chief Scott Tyler confirmed. Detectives have since been trying to identify who wrote the note.

The school never notified parents, however, a decision that principal Bill Jones stood by on Tuesday afternoon.

“My job is to transmit useful information. Quite honestly this is not useful,” Jones said. “It is not going to make them any more safe. There’s nothing they can do.”

Jones said he made the decision after consulting with police, and because the threat did not seem credible to begin with since it mentioned dates that do not exist — Feb. 29 and 30. Notifying parents he felt could have added to mass hysteria and make students, parents and staff feel more uneasy than they were already feeling.

Nevertheless, the school says it’s investigating the threat, as are police.

“We have to thoroughly vet each incident,” Tyler said. “We have had an increased presence as we have had at our schools and we will continue to do so, but at this time we don’t believe this is a credible threat. We just think it’s kids messing around.”

Detectives have reviewed the surveillance camera footage from a camera that overlooks the sinks in the open bathrooms, and have been interviewing those students that were seen entering and exiting the stall where the note was found.

Tyler said he was unsure if detectives would succeed in identifying the writer to face charges, but detectives will be on campus again Wednesday as they continue their investigation. The non-existent dates have also led police to believe this is not a credible threat, the chief said.

In the wake of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County on Feb. 14 in which 17 students and teachers were killed, Manatee County schools have seen nearly a dozen threats of violence.

Since news of the threat spread, two students, Juan Alvarez and Katherine Hughes, have organized a walkout for Wednesday. At 2:30 p.m., students participating are expected to walk out and will protest for 30 minutes in front of the school. High school students at the school get a 30-minute daily break at 2:30 p.m. known as a “brain break.”

According to Hughes, at least 331 people have RSVP’d by Tuesday afternoon.

The students will be calling on Congress, specifically U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines, expand background checks to all gun sales, pass the Federal Gun Violence Restraining Order law, fund government research on gun violence and to actively promote safe storage of firearms, Hughes told the Bradenton Herald.

A moment of silence will also be observed to honor 17 victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County.

Jones said the school is not terribly concerned about the plan for some to walk out, especially if it occurs during the brain break.

“We are all taking safety very seriously,” Jones said. “I think some people are going beyond safety.”

If the walkout does not occur during the “brain break,” students could be counted as absent or tardy.

“You have a right to free speech. You don’t have the right to disrupt the school,” Jones cautioned students.

A copy of the note calling for the walkout was provided to the Bradenton Herald by a parent and read, “We the students of the United States, to a form a safer place for our children and generations to come, have established a walkout/protest against gun violence this Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. (If the brain break is canceled we are walking out of our classes and meeting in the courtyard!)

“All you have to do is follow the crowd when you see it. In times like this, we need to stick together and honor the 17 victims of Parkland, as well as hundreds of others across the country,” the note continued.

The note concluded with a link for anyone planning to join to RSVP, but when tested by the Bradenton Herald just before 6 p.m. Tuesday, the link did not work.

This story was originally published February 27, 2018 at 7:29 PM with the headline "Threat to Manatee School for the Arts being investigated but not considered credible."