For the third straight day, normal activities at Buddy Taylor Middle School were brought to a halt by an anonymous threat. The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office announced that there’d been another threat shortly before 8:00 am Thursday morning, as school buses were about to drop students off.
The timing of this third threat matches what happened yesterday, when buses were rerouted to Indian Trails Middle School. They were again rerouted today while law enforcement could conduct yet another search of the school campus to rule out a legitimate threat. Deputies and officers are no doubt becoming intimately familiar with the layout of the BTMS campus. Of course, because the campuses are directly adjacent to one another, any lockdown at BTMS also affects Wadsworth Elementary School as well.
The all-clear signal was given later Thursday morning, after deputies determined there was no threat to the school. Regular school schedules resumed, and the FCSO announced they’d be conducting proactive patrols at both BTMS and other schools in response to the repeated threats. Sheriff Rick Staly is slated to hold a press conference at 12:45 pm on Thursday, providing a status update on the agency’s attempts to identify the perpetrator or perpetrators and bring them to justice.
On Tuesday, the day of the first threat, it was placed in the afternoon as students were boarding buses home and being picked up. Wednesday saw a threat placed in the morning during drop-off, and then a subsequent threat placed later in the day to Old Kings Elementary School. Thursday’s threat mirrored Wednesday’s, and it remains to be seen whether more Flagler County schools will receive threats in the coming hours and days.
