Angry Sheriff Mike Chitwood warns ‘swatters’ and their parents they may get ‘perp walk’ – MASHAHER

DELAND – Fed up with dozens of recent swatting events, Volusia County’s sheriff, Mike Chitwood, announced Friday that Volusia County Schools’ students and parents involved with making false threats will be put out for “public embarrassment” to include showcasing arrest photos and, if possible, “perp walks.”

At a press conference held by the district and the sheriff’s office, Chitwood said 207 threats have been received so far this 2024-2025 school year, and at least 54 of those tips came Thursday night.

“What we’re going to start doing Monday is, since parents, you don’t want to raise your kids, I’m going to start raising them,” Chitwood said. “Every time we make an arrest, your kid’s photo is going to be put out there. And if I could do it, I’m going to perp walk your kid so that everybody can see what your kid’s up to. The second point of this is, if I can any way find out that a parent knew what was going on and wasn’t doing anything, your ass is getting perp walked with them.”

Volusia County School officials have been working “around the clock” to investigate each of the recent 54 FortifyFL tips, all of which are “turning out to be false” and costing close to $21,000, Chitwood said.

The FortifyFL App is a “suspicious activity reporting tool” that helps instantly relay critical information to the appropriate law enforcement agencies and school officials when there is an imminent threat.

“So far this year, there have been 207 threats who have come in,” Chitwood said. “We’ve arrested seven people for written threats to kill; one student, if you remember, tried to bring a loaded firearm into a Mainland (High School) football game. We’ve had 11 weapons on our campuses this year.”

Two Heritage Middle School students, ages 13 and 14, were arrested last night and early this morning after posting threats to commit a school shooting on TikTok and Instagram.

Additionally, earlier this week, officials also investigated threats made to several Volusia County schools including two in Daytona Beach – at Halifax Academy and Westside Elementary School – where students were arrested.

Captain Todd Smith, Volusia County Schools’ director of safety and security, said the curriculum is structured to the number of hours students are in school, so when schools are shut down to conduct investigations and ensure safety, it interrupts a student’s ability to learn effectively.

“We need to make sure that all of our kids are getting the education that they need and that they’re getting it in a nice, safe, and secure environment,” Smith said. “And right now, the kids themselves are making the chaos, so we need the parents to help us to bring that back together so that the kids can get the education that they deserve.”

Classroom screenings begin

Starting this school year, the district began conducting random classroom screenings in which a computerized random generator selects a school and then a classroom at that school. With support from school administrators, a district team will set up metal detectors outside of a classroom door for students to walk through either on their way in or out of the room.

“We’ve done some schools already this week, and it’s been very successful,” said John Cash, Volusia County Schools’ chief of staff. “And I will tell you, the majority of the students that I saw … are thankful that we’re doing this. It’s a very expeditious process. At the two schools we’ve done so far, it took less than 10 minutes to screen those classes.”

Volusia County Schools and the Volusia Sheriff’s Office plan to further increase safety on campuses by having a district weapons detection K-9, starting in the middle of November, Smith said.

“Our worst fear is a firearm in our schools. We’ve done very well at protecting our student body from a threat from the outside, so we want to make sure that there’s not a threat that’s already inside the student body,” Smith said. “So (there are) complexities with trying to metal detect every single student that comes into a school … so one of the best ways to do that is is through a K-9. … The dog just smells. If there’s a firearm, it’s going to let us know that there’s a firearm and that we need to address this immediately.”

Cash also highlighted the district’s “fantastic” relationship with the sheriff’s department.

“We can pick the phone up and talk to the sheriff. We can pick the phone up and talk to the captain. These guys can call to the state level. We can call to the state level,” he said. “The information flow is excellent because we’re trying to get this right, which is why it’s so frustrating for a small percentage of students to take the amount of resources away from the things we really need to be spending them on for (the) foolishness of not thinking about the consequences of social media.”

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Volusia schools, sheriff’s office say parents can prevent false threats