More than 900 students were absent from three Orange County schools on Thursday due to social media threats.
The threats, made by a man on Twitter, included shooting students and putting pipe bombs inside campuses.
Nearly a third of student body at one school alone were not present for the school day. Parents from four schools recorded phone messages on Wednesday saying the district was working closely with law enforcement to investigate a “social media concern.”
According to the Associated Press and WESH News, on Thursday there were 379 absences at Orange’s Liberty Middle School, 357 at Orlando’s Boone High School and 174 absences at Orlando’s Edgewater High School. Orlando’s Colonial High School was the fourth school named in the threats and it is unclear how many students were missing from there.
The FBI, Orlando Police Department and Orange County Sheriff’s Office were working together to look into the threats on Wednesday, but did not believe them to be credible.
Law enforcement agencies are now looking for the man that posted these threats. They say he is 23-year-old Jesus Henry Kong, a transient who has lived in Florida, California, Virginia and Maryland. According to the Orlando Sentinel, Kong also goes by Jessie Eloah Calix and Jesus Matute. He has a “history of law enforcement encounters.”
In the posts, Kong encouraged people to shoot up the schools and talked about his plans to put pipe bombs in two different schools.
According to various news outlets, the posts said:
“I want to shoot a few (kids) at Liberty Middle School. I dislike homosexuals … ” one post said.
“I encourage any mf being bullied there too shoot up the school on August 18.”
“I am going too put a mf pipe bomb in liberty middle school.”
“I would live too shoot a few students at colonial high school on August 18.”