DELAND, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - A 15-year-old high school student in DeLand, Florida has been arrested after police said he brought a phone case resembling a gun to school.
A student at DeLand High School flagged down some officers who were at the school, as part of Operation School Guardian. The officers locked down the school and found the student with a pink, gun-shaped phone case. The student was charged with disrupting a school function.
"It just boggles my mind when I think of the cell phone companies manufacturing look-alike guns," said DeLand Police Chief Jason Umberger. "Shame on them!"
A 13-year-old student was also arrested on Tuesday morning at Taylor Middle High School in Pierson, Florida, after police said he shared threatening messages on social media. The teenager was charged with threatening to discharge a destructive device. According to the Volusia County Sheriff's Office, he told a school resource deputy that he had been bullied and might bring a gun to school someday.
In yet another incident on Tuesday, Volusia County sheriff’s deputies investigated at Pine Ridge High School in Deltona after learning that a .22-caliber bullet had been found in a boys weightlifting locker room bathroom. This is the second time in a week that ammunition has been found at the school. Last Thursday, two bullets were found stuck in between mats in the weight room, but no weapons were found.
Since the school shooting in South Florida last week, three Volusia County students have been arrested in school-related incidents. In addition to the two arrests on Tuesday, last Friday, deputies arrested a 14-year-old student at Heritage Middle School in Deltona, Florida for allegedly making statements in class about blowing up and shooting up his classroom. That student was charged with making a false report of a bomb, a felony, and disrupting a school function.