'Get ready for Columbine part 2;' Union County students arrested after threat, deputies say

UNION COUNTY, Fla. — Three Union County High School students were arrested Friday after making a school shooting threat the night before, according to deputies.

The threat was made on Snapchat and read, "Get ready for Columbine part 2."

The students arrested were all seniors at the school. They were identified as:

• Noah C. Reed, 18, Lake Butler, Fla
• Amy Bechtel, 18, Lake Butler, Fla.
• 17-year-old male, Lake Butler, Fla.

The student have been charged with “written threats to kill, do bodily injury, or conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism." The adult students were booked in the Union County Jail, and the juvenile was transported to the Department of Juvenille Justice in Gainesville, Fla.

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Union County Sheriff's Office deputies and investigators were able to quickly determine the students involved, and brought them station to be interviewed. As Friday is the last day of classes for seniors, with assemblies planned throughout the day, the Sheriff's Office stressed that the threat was taken very seriously.

“We live in a day an age where all threats of violence against our children and schools must be taken very seriously. We have increased law enforcement presences in and around the schools today for everyone’s safety. We believe there are no current threats of harm on our schools,” Sheriff Brad Whitehead said.

In an Action News Jax exclusive, David Reed defended his son, Noah, 18.

“He’s a good kid,” Reed said. “He’s not the monster that people are making him out to be. He would never harm a hair on anybody’s head.”

Thursday, Action News Jax told you an Interlachen High School senior was arrested for a post featuring a gun and the words, “No school tomorrow?”

The recent threats are part of why Evie Epstein and Keelan Corcoran- 6th graders at Mayport Middle School- took it upon themselves to try to improve school safety as a class project.

They want to add discreet metal detectors.

“Our plan was to like small ones that they wouldn’t know that it happened, like they wouldn’t see it, so like near the doors,” Corcoran said.

“It would help with our safety and that’s really important,” Epstein added.

Cox Media Group