2 teens arrested for Fort White High School threats

Fort White High School.
Photo by C.J. Gish

Two teenagers were arrested for posting social media threats involving Fort White High School.

According to the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO), which was involved in tracking down a 13-year-old Madison County boy on Sunday who posted threats to Madison and Columbia county schools, law enforcement arrested 17-year-old Christopher Smith Jr. on Monday and 14-year-old Mya Jenkins on Tuesday.

A Tuesday morning CCSO release stated that detectives were able to identify Jenkins as the suspect involved in a recent social media threat involving a school shooting at Fort White High School. Jenkins confessed and has been charged with a second-degree felony in connection to making the threats.

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On Monday, the CCSO stated, “A school threat on a social media account was reported to the School Resource Deputy at Fort White High School. This threat was determined to be separate from the one reported on yesterday’s date. The SRD was familiar with the social media account and believed it to be a current student at the school. The student was immediately brought in for questioning and further investigation. During the interview process, the student admitted to posting the threat of a shooting on his Instagram account. The student was identified as 17-year-old Christopher Smith Jr. Christopher is being arrested and charged with a 2nd degree felony for posting the threat. No weapons were found in the suspect’s possession.”


In Monday’s CCSO release, Columbia County Mark Sheriff said the social media threats will not tolerated.

“We will treat these types of posts with the utmost urgency and deal with the suspects swiftly and seriously,” Hunter said. “We ask parents to please monitor their children’s social media activity and stress the importance of responsible usage on these platforms. I also want to applaud the student who came forward to report this information so we could deal with it accordingly.”

The multiple school shooting threats come days after 14-year-old Colt Gray killed two students and two teachers and injured nine others in a shooting on Sept. 4 at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia.

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