- November 15, 2024
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Matanzas High School contacted law enforcement officers Feb. 11 after school staff found threatening images and text posted through a student's Twitter account.
The tweets showed what appeared to be firearms captioned with phrases like "Palm Compton," "ISIS affiliated" and "High School Musical; Massacre addition"; other phrases seemed to threaten particular school staff members.
The student who owned the Twitter account, a 16-year-old 10th-grader, told deputies that the guns were airsoft guns and that although the images were his, someone else had altered them to add the threatening captions and posted them to Twitter.
Matanzas High School Assistant Principal Ken Seybold contacted the Flagler County Sheriff's Office at about 6:48 p.m. Feb. 11 after a school cheerleading coach, Morgan Moreira, texted him about the tweets from the 10th-grader's Twitter account. The Tweets were timestamped for 1:41 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 9.
One showed a student holding what looked like two pistols with the captions, "Troy Bolton? High School Musical? Whatchu' doin boi," and, "When you catch the teacher who failed you last semester lackin.'"
Another image showed the student holding what looked like a semi-automatic rifle with the captions, "Palm Compton," "ISIS Affiliated," "Ain't Troy Bolton no more," "High School Musical; Massacre edition," and "When you tired of getting beat up in school." ("Troy Bolton" is the name of a character in the show "High School Musical.")
A deputy went to the teen's house on Lincoln Lane in Palm Coast, but the student wasn't home. The deputy spoke with his grandparents, who didn't recognize the guns in the picture but said the teen likes to play paintball and airsoft.
Later that night, at around 11:12 p.m. after the teenager got home, a deputy spoke with him and asked him about the guns in the pictures.
The teen said he'd posed with airsoft guns and a rifle Feb. 7, but "denied having any knowledge of or participation in adding said captions to the photographs and posting the photographs with captions on Twitter," according to the deputy's report.
The teen told the deputy "that he has no affiliation with ISIS nor does he have any animosity or hard feeling with any past or present teachers or staff members at Matanzas High School," and that he did not have any thought of hurting himself or others.
