We are aware of an incident at Blake Academy involving a student who made a TikTok video about another student.
On Monday the video was reported to school staff, who immediately began reviewing the incident and reported it to district staff. We discovered that the video had been created during the previous weekend – not on school property – and thus was not a situation where we would have the authority to handle the matter with school discipline.
Blake Academy staff met with the parent of the alleged victim and explained the situation, and the parent wanted to file charges. The school’s resource officer assisted her with that process, and the Lakeland Police Department is forwarding this case to the State Attorney’s Office for additional review.
School staff have also interviewed both students and conducted an investigation to determine if bullying has been occurring. To this point, we have found no evidence that any bullying has taken place during their time together at Blake Academy.
School staff have done their best to work with the parent of the alleged victim and make changes that have been requested. The parent has returned to the school multiple times this week alleging that Blake Academy and the Lakeland Police Department are ignoring the situation, which is patently false.
The parent’s behavior has escalated to a point of disrupting school operations, which resulted in her being trespassed from campus.
It has also come to our attention that a local organization has issued a press release that grossly misrepresents the facts of this situation. It should be noted that the child who made the video was not arrested, despite the online claims. We reiterate that the Lakeland Police Department is referring this matter to the State Attorney’s Office to determine if charges are warranted.
It’s not uncommon for students, especially children of this age, to do foolish things on social media. We take all of these incidents seriously and investigate them to determine if there is a credible threat to anyone’s safety.
School staff and law enforcement have been diligent and thorough in their response to this situation. Our staff has worked with the parent to the best of their ability, and we will continue to cooperate with law enforcement as needed.
I reported this to the Florida Department of Safe Schools which led to the girl being charged yesterday. She made two videos about two different students. This video falls under the statue 836.05 threats, it was charged as an electronic threat. Per the State of Florida this a threat level III, I looked it up an on the Florida Department of Education website, the office of safe schools, SESIR Codes and Definitions. I know that it has only been the governing rule for four years. I was instructed to submit the video ( at this time I was only aware of the one that my son had told me about) to Fortifyfl, submit a tip. So I did. She was charged with-in three hours. I did not stop with just sending a tip. I drove to the Polk County school district office and tried to talk to anyone that could help with this threat. I was sent to 4 different locations looking for the local Safe School Officers, to end up back at the district office. I was given phone numbers for the following and called Rian Shea one of Polk’s Safe School officers, Dr. Ben Henry Asst. Superintendent, Wayne Green Deputy Superintendent ( I spoke with a nice woman that took all my information and the reason that I was calling). I was not called back or contacted by any of these offices or people. As a parent calling them saying that I had now 2 videos made by a student shooting two different classmates in the head in the hall way of a school, I just cannot believe that no one has called me back. I have two sons at this school and do not see how this was not a threat. If someone making a video about shooting someone or people at school is not investigated and taken seriously then bad things are going to keep happening. The statement that was sent out states that the video was somehow different because it was not made on school campus, is crazy. This was a school shooting threat with two targets and everyone at the school and the school board has failed our children. I was not involved with LPD but it seems like they failed as well. The facts are facts and will come out. The girl was charged because she should have been, the threat was real.