DUVAL COUNTY, Fla. – A psychologist said the shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia could have influenced the increase of threats made at Northeast Florida schools.
RELATED: 9 Northeast Florida students arrested, accused of making school threats since start of school year
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Since the shooting, over a dozen students have been arrested in Duval, Putnam, and Flagler among other counties.
On Friday, an 11-year-old was arrested for making a bomb threat at Baker County Middle School.
Sheriff’s offices have been posting photos and videos of students being arrested and accused of making threats.
Some students have been arrested for making bomb threats, bringing a weapon to school, and making a gun out of clay and pointing it at other students.
Dr. Christine Cauffield said there are some commonalities between students who make the threats.
“One is that they are preoccupied with violence,” Cauffield said. “They play a lot of violent video games. They watch a lot of violent television movies. They draw and sometimes in their drawings, there’s a lot of gore and violent depictions.”
Cauffield said the recent shooting at a Georgia High School could have influenced the recent wave of threats.
“Oftentimes you’ll see copycat events, individuals that have been thinking about doing something like this, that idea is planted now because there’s coverage and there’s loss and so they often want to copycat that event, thinking that perhaps they could move up in notoriety,” Cauffield said.