Book Bags Banned At Some Local Schools
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Some school officials in South Florida are taking no chances over the next 48 hours as rumors of possible shootings and other violence have taken hold with Friday being the one week anniversary of the deadly Connecticut school shootings.
There have been no confirmed threats against schools by local police. However, in the wake of last Friday's shootings in Connecticut, all possibilities are being taken seriously.
In Davie, Western High School took the step of banning backpacks for the rest of the week. The ban came after rumors of a shooting planned for the school on Friday began to percolate amongst the student body.
According to Davie Police, they do not know who may have made the threat and are looking into whether the threat metastasized from social media. Davie Police did say that if anyone has any information about a possible threat locally that they will come forward and tell police.
Davie Police said they have increased their presence at the school and "are prepared to respond to any incident which may occur."
Police in Davie also said there's a possibility that there are no threats against Western High School in Davie, and instead were meant for another school with a similar name in Ohio named Western Hills where there was a shooting last week.
Officially, Broward County Public Schools released the following statement Wednesday about the threats of violence:
Broward District School Police report there have been rumors of violence circulating through social media in several Broward County public schools. In every case, no substantive information has been found to give credibility to any of these threats. District Police are taking all threats very seriously and, in collaboration with local law enforcement, continue to be vigilant.
In Miami-Dade County, Miami-Dade Public Schools have also sent out an email to principals saying they support not allowing book bags over the next few days. However, the decision is left up to each principal to make a call about book bags.
Miami-Dade County schools said the possibility of no book bags had nothing to do with the shootings or any threats, but school officials instead don't want students to have shaving cream and other things students may bring with them to school for any mischief on the last day before a break.
Other than that, Miami-Dade Public Schools said they are not doing anything different over the next few days at schools across the county.
