ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – The constant rise in violence at a few St. Johns County schools has some parents on edge and concerned about their children’s safety.
Those concerns are fueled by the recent threats and fights at Bartram Trail High School, Creekside High School, Fruit Cove Middle School and Switzerland Point Middle School.
At April’s St. Johns County School Board meeting, one mother spoke about her daughter being attacked at Fruit Cove Middle School.
The mother said her 14-year-old daughter was “violently assaulted” in an unprovoked incident by an eighth-grade boy who was over 6 feet tall and weighed over 200 pounds.
Other parents shared similar concerns.
“I’m extremely worried, of course,” Anthony Kimba said. “Worried because my daughter is in the eighth grade. Somethings have been happening and it’s tough.”
Priscilla Centeno said although her children haven’t experienced any issues, she said she’s heard about a lot of the chaos, calling it “really sad.”
These concerns at Fruit Cove Middle became public around the same time as concerns were raised at Switzerland Point Middle School following a student being violently attacked in a video that circulated online.
There were also two recent and similar threats made at two high schools in the area.
One was at Bartram Trail High School where a threat was written on a bathroom wall on April 21st.
Then another was written on a bathroom wall at Creekside High School on April 28th.
In that case, a student was arrested. St. Johns County Sheriff Robert Hardwick put out the following statement to the community:
“The safety and security of our schools will continue to be a top priority for the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office. Under no circumstances will this type of behavior be tolerated. These types of crimes will be investigated thoroughly and the individual will be held criminally responsible. In the coming school year, the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office is committed to adding two additional detectives assigned to our school district with or without additional funding to specifically investigate these crimes.”
The St. Johns County School District also put out a statement with respect to the situation at the two middle schools:
“Student Services ran the report for the coding of Fight which is FIT. Fruit Cove has had 10 this year and Switzerland Point has had 0. Fruit Cove administration has addressed every fight on school campus and applied the appropriate consequences in accordance with our Student Code of Conduct.”
Parents are planning to attend the May 9 school board meeting to express their concerns.