2 Lakewood Ranch Preparatory students arrested for making written threats

The Manatee County Sheriff's Office arrested two Lakewood Ranch Preparatory Academy students for making written threats about a school shooting Wednesday.

On Tuesday night, detectives began investigating a Snapchat message regarding an alleged fight in the school gym with the words, "I'm shooting up the school at 9," according to a news release from the Sheriff's Office. 

Deputies were on campus Wednesday morning to provide security and investigate where the message originated. 

The investigation led deputies to a 14-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy. 

The girl later admitted to creating the post and the boy told deputies he wrote a post about killing classmates, according to the release. 

Both students are charged with written/electronic threats to kill, which is a second-degree felony. 

"Students must understand the seriousness of making threats about school violence," said Sheriff Rick Wells in the release. "Make no mistake about it, if we have evidence that a student made a threat to kill, we arrest them and take them to the Juvenile Detention Center. I encourage parents to remind their children of the consequences of making school threats.”

In a separate incident, at Buffalo Creek Middle School, a sixth grader was arrested for making a threat and also was charged with written/electronic threats to kill. 

School administration at Buffalo Creek Middle were made aware Tuesday night of a threat between two students on an instant messaging app, according to the release.

The 11-year-old student told the other student in a written message, "Be ready for tomorrow, I will kill u bruh."

Deputies confronted the student Wednesday at school and searched the student's belongings. No firearms or other weapons were found, according to the release. 

The student admitted to the threat and was charged, according to the release. 

These arrests come five days after a 15-year-old boy was arrested for stating via Snapchat that he was going to commit a school shooting in Manatee County.

The boy admitted to making the threats as a joke, according to a news release.