Flagler Deputies Arrest Palm Coast Teen Accused of Using FortifyFL App for School Shooting Hoaxes

The Flagler County Sheriff's Office has arrested a 16-year-old Palm Coast girl accused of using FortifyFL, Florida's statewide school safety tip app, to submit a string of false reports about school shootings and violence against her own family, including one detectives say she sent from a second device while they were inside her home interviewing her mother.

The sheriff's office said the teen was taken into custody Sept. 16 after a monthlong investigation into false tips submitted between Aug. 13 and Sept. 15. She is charged with making a false report concerning a bomb, explosive, weapon of mass destruction or use of firearms in a violent manner, and with unlawful use of a two-way communications device. Both are felonies. The Florida Press is not naming her because she is a juvenile.

The case, announced by the sheriff's office on Oct. 2, is the latest example of swatting, the practice of making false emergency reports designed to send armed police to a location, aimed at Florida schools. Sheriff Rick Staly said the investigation has already taken more than 300 hours of detective work, not counting the time deputies spent responding to the hoaxes.

The first tips: an elementary school and a high school

According to the sheriff's office, the first FortifyFL report arrived on Aug. 13. It claimed that one of the girl's siblings had a firearm and had been told to shoot inside the lunchroom at Rymfire Elementary School in Palm Coast. Detectives traced the report to a device at the family's home.

While detectives were at the residence that day speaking with the girl's mother, deputies received a second FortifyFL tip claiming someone was headed to Flagler Palm Coast High School to "shoot it up." Deputies responded to the school and determined the threat was a hoax. Detectives later traced that tip back to the same residence and concluded the teen had submitted it from a different device while investigators were talking with her mother, the sheriff's office said.

A search warrant, a new phone and more reports

On Aug. 19, detectives served a search warrant at the home and seized multiple electronic devices. The false reports did not stop. According to the sheriff's office, detectives later learned that the girl's mother had bought her a new cellphone after the search warrant was served.

On Sept. 14, another tip arrived claiming the teen planned to kill members of her family, burn down the home and attack someone at school, according to WFTV's account of the sheriff's office findings. When questioned, the girl denied submitting the report and said she had no access to a device, but investigators traced it to her. A forensic examination confirmed that her cellphone had been used to submit FortifyFL reports, the sheriff's office said.

The key dates in the investigation, as described by the sheriff's office:

Arrest and detention

Deputies took the girl into custody at the Palm Coast Landings shopping center on Sept. 16, according to WFTV. She was processed at the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility in Bunnell and then turned over to the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, which held her at the Volusia Family Resource Center. Her case is being handled in the juvenile system, according to reports.

The sheriff's office said its Criminal Intelligence Unit is continuing to investigate other false reports dating back to October 2025 that detectives believe may be connected to the teen, and that additional charges are possible. She has not been adjudicated on any of the charges.

In announcing the arrest, Staly said the girl had "repeatedly and dangerously abused" a tool that students, parents and the community rely on to keep schools safe, and that the reports appeared intended only to create fear and chaos.

What FortifyFL is and why misuse matters

FortifyFL was created and funded by the Florida Legislature in 2018 as part of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, passed after the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting in Parkland that killed 17 people. Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School named the app, and its development was coordinated by the Office of the Attorney General, the Florida Department of Education and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

The app lets students, parents, staff and other residents report suspicious activity or threats, with photos or video if they choose, and automatically routes each tip to the appropriate law enforcement agency and school officials. Users can decide whether to include their name, which makes the system easy to use but also vulnerable to abuse. In this case, tips alleging a gun at a school sent deputies to campus and to the family's home, the sheriff's office said.

Florida school districts are required to provide FortifyFL training to parents and guardians each year, and that training covers the consequences of making threats or false reports involving school property, transportation or events, including school discipline and possible criminal charges.

What the charges carry

Under Florida Statute 790.163, making a false report about a bomb, explosive, weapon of mass destruction or the use of firearms in a violent manner is a second-degree felony, which for adults carries up to 15 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The statute also bars courts from withholding adjudication for the offense. Because the Palm Coast teen is 16 and her case is in the juvenile system, the penalties she could face are different from those in adult court.

Florida's zero-tolerance school law also lists false reports under that statute involving school property, school transportation or school-sponsored activities among the offenses that call for expulsion of at least one full year and referral to the criminal or juvenile justice system.

The volume of threat cases in Florida schools remains large. A December 2025 report by the Legislature's Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability counted 58,983 threat incidents reported through school threat management processes during the 2024-25 school year, with about 5 percent deemed high-level concerns.

What's next

The teen's case will proceed in juvenile court in Flagler County. Detectives with the sheriff's Criminal Intelligence Unit are still reviewing the older false reports dating to October 2025, and the sheriff's office has said more charges could follow if those reports are tied to her.

The case also shows that anonymous FortifyFL tips are not untraceable. Flagler detectives tied the reports in this case to specific devices through location analysis and a forensic review of the teen's phone, according to the sheriff's office, even after the household replaced a seized device.