Teen arrested for allegedly threatening Bay High School student

BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) – A Parker teen is in custody tonight, accused of threatening a Bay High School student and setting the school on fire.

The school was placed on lockdown around 9 a.m. Wednesday after someone notified law enforcement about the threat on social media.

Investigators say the teenager quickly regretted his actions.

15-year-old Caleb Brooks was arrested for allegedly threatening to harm a Bay High School student and attack the school on social media.

“We received a call from a citizen who had seen a post on Reddit, a social media site, indicating that a particular victim was being attacked and threatened with violence at Bay High School,” Sheriff Tommy said Ford.

Authorities say Brooks was home-schooled and admitted making the threat but almost immediately regretted it.

He deleted the post, but by then someone had already taken a screenshot of the threat and notified law enforcement.

School resource officers and Panama City police officers took immediate action.

“Officers and deputies worked together to ensure the safety of the school. Our Criminal Investigation Department has launched an investigation and is currently working to determine the source of this threat. We have some leads on that,” Ford said.

Bay District Schools Communications Director Sharon Michalik says it was a frightening experience for students and staff.

“Our students and teachers found themselves in the middle of some very important state-mandated testing and had to impose a hard lockdown without knowing exactly what was going on or why, because at this moment there are obviously limited details that can be shared in absolute terms frightening for those involved,” said Michalik.

Both Ford and Michalik say Brooks will face serious consequences.

“Anyone who finds it funny or thinks they can get away with a school threat just needs to know that we will use all of our resources to find them and hold them accountable,” Ford said.

“It can have serious consequences, both academic consequences and in some cases criminal consequences.” You can’t mess around with that. There is nothing funny about threatening a classmate or a school,” Michalik added.

Brooks faces a felony count of making written threats to kill.