Authorities charge student for threats at Nolan Middle School

The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office has charged a 13-year-old boy from Nolan Middle School in connection with threats at the school.

Sheriff’s Office spokesman Dave Bristow said they were “verbal threats made to other students during class” and fall under Florida Statute 790.163, which makes a “false report concerning planting a bomb, an explosive, or a weapon of mass destruction, or concerning the use of firearms in a violent manner” a second-degree felony.

The student, whose identity is not being released because of his age, has been referred to the juvenile justice system.

Bristow said the threat was not credible.

The incident at Nolan is the third such incident handled by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office since the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland that killed 17 people and left more than a dozen injured.

A male student at Braden River School was charged in connection with a threat made on social media — the charges were not against the student whose photo was used, but the student who created the image — and two girls at Team Success Charter School were charged in connection with a separate threat.

The Bradenton Police Department similarly arrested a student from Manatee High School on Feb. 20.

Bristow said it is common to receive such threats after an incident like the one in Parkland and law enforcement across the country is experiencing  the same.

“We found that the threats are not credible threats, but it doesn’t matter,” Bristow said. “They are still making threats. As long as someone makes a threat, they will be charged.

“It will start subsiding, I’m sure,” Bristow said. “In the meantime, we’re telling parents they really need to have discussions with their children.”