"I'm a very dumb person sometimes," Taravella High student accused of making school threat
FORT LAUDERDALE - FORT LAUDERDALE - A J. P. Taravella High School student accused of making school threats will be on house arrest after posting bond.
BSO told CBS News Miami that 18-year-old Catrina Petit was released Monday afternoon and sent to another facility.
According to police, Petit used two other students' names and passwords to access the school's internal Canvas system to send several teachers emails with threats. Two emails were reportedly sent.
School board IT was able to identify which two laptops the emails were sent from and the students that had allegedly accessed them. Both students were brought in, questioned, and cleared.
A student witness said they saw a student in a grey hooded sweatshirt approach the laptop docking station two times.
The instructor in charge of the classroom where the laptops were used to send the threats said he recalled Petit removing a laptop from the docking station, sitting down with it for five to ten minutes, and then returning it. She then removed a second laptop and did the same. He said she then went back to her seat without a laptop.
Asked what type of shirt she was wearing, the instructors said a grey hooded sweatshirt.
During questioning, Petit initially denied using a laptop.
According to the arrest report, she later admitted to sending the emails. She reportedly told investigators she knew the students' passwords because they were the default ones they were supposed to use and the two students never changed them. When asked why she made the threats, Petit replied, "I don't know, I'm a very dumb person sometimes," and added "Sometimes I do stuff with reasoning," according to the arrest report.
According to investigators, the text of the emails got out and was posted online. That sparked panic Friday in several other school districts in the state, including Miami-Dade
Petit is facing 8 charges. They include three counts of intimidation to write or send a threat to kill or injure, and one count of a false report of a weapon of mass destruction.
Coral Springs Police Captain Gerald Irwin said, "Kids do things as a joke and put up something, a school threat or something like that. They intend for it to be a joke but it is not a joke. It's very serious," he said.
Irwin warning there is zero tolerance for threats. "Parents, it is extremely important to talk to your children and explain to them the seriousness of this, even if you think your child is not one who would spread a horrible threat like this," he said.
Miami-Dade Schools Police Chief Ivan Silva, reiterating the seriousness of making threats saying the consequences can last a lifetime. "Right now they think it's a joke, but later on in their life or career and apply for a job or college this will come back and haunt them," he warned.
Her bond was set at $80,000. In addition to house arrest, she will be fitted with a GPS ankle monitor and she will not be allowed to use her phone or computer.
During her bond hearing, Petit's sister and her pastor said what she did was not in her character.
"She is one of the most respectful, humble, polite, submissive, and thoughtful young women that I ever met in my 30 years of ministry," said Pastor Aurilus Desmornes of the Bethesda House of Blessings.
