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The altercation at West Port High School was prompted by white students who waved Confederate flags during lunch.
Click Orlando screenshot
More than 1,000 students stayed at home from an Ocala, Fla. on Monday following a mass shooting threat posted on social media over the weekend, ClickOrlando reports.
According to the report, Marion County Public Schools officials said that three students at West Port High School planned to bring a Confederate flag to school and took it out during lunch, waving it around, prompting a fight with other students.
“Obviously, they did this together,” School District Spokesman Kevin Christian told the news site. “They planned it out. It was calculated. They knew exactly what was going to happen. They wanted a response and they got a response.”
WFTV9 reported that out of the 2,6000 students of the school, more than 1,600 stayed at home. According to the news station, those students who opted to attend class got extra protection from 10 Ocala polie officers. WFTV9 also reported that it was four students that brought the small Confederate flags, prompting the fight.
One black student was put off at the gesture and reportedly punched one of the offenders. She was given a juvenile civil citation for the hit, WFTV9 reports, while those who brought the flags were disciplined by the school.
ClickOrlando notes that as there was no school on Friday, Christian believed that the incident was left to fester on social media, eventually culminating into the mass shooting threat. However, according to the site, parents were not told about the incident, which angered some.
“Nobody’s telling anybody anything,” one parent, Cindie Carrier, who opted to keep her kids home, told ClickOrlando. Carrier was upset that the district did not issue an automated call explaining the shooting threat and then that it was later found to be unfounded.
“We as parents have a right, and we put our children in that school, and we assume that they’re protected while they’re there. If there was a problem, why were we not contacted?” she said.
“You have to understand, we want to share factual information,” Christian acknowledged, but did add that after the same question was issued by several parents, discussions were being had.
“That is a conversation that we are having,” he said. “I had several conversations with parents this morning saying, ‘why didn’t you just call us?’ And that’s something we’re discussing.”
Read more at ClickOrlando and WFTV9.
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