In response to the threat — later found to be false — more than 55 Hillsborough County Sheriff's deputies responded to the middle school. Credit: Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, via Facebook

In response to the threat — later found to be false — more than 55 Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the middle school. Credit: Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, via Facebook
A 12-year-old girl faces charges of calling in a fake threat at a Tampa Bay area middle school. The girl faces felony charges; she is accused of calling in a report that she'd seen an armed man dressed in black.

Hillsborough County deputies — more than 55 of them, along with 20 school safety officers — responded to the threat at Farnell Middle School. HCSO says the first deputy was at the site where the girl reported seeing the man within 30 seconds. Officials placed the middle school — along with nearby Bryant Elementary — on lockdown.

The girl called in the threat in the morning; school activities had returned to normal by 1 p.m. Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister spoke with parents gathered outside the school to reassure them their children were safe.


This article appears in Feb 14-21, 2019.

Cathy's portfolio includes pieces for Visit Florida, USA Today and regional and local press. In 2016, UPF published Backroads of Paradise, her travel narrative about retracing the WPA-era Florida driving...