BRANFORD, Fla. — An old social media post from Louisiana caused a scare at Branford High School on Friday.

According to Suwannee County Sheriff Sam St. John, the local scare stemmed from a social media message about a “BHS” in Louisiana and that student had previously been arrested for that post.

But it still caused a stir locally Friday.
“Facebook and social media can be your friend or it can be a nightmare and lately it’s been a nightmare,” St. John said. “But it can help to get the message out.”

The “nightmare” it caused Friday started when a student at Suwannee High School texted his girlfriend at Branford High about a social media post that said there was going to be a shooting at BHS and to be careful, according to the Suwannee County Sheriff’s Office.

The BHS student then informed the School Resource Officer, Deputy Brad Mincks. Mincks and the BHS administration then put the school into lockdown out of caution and additional deputies were deployed to the school, according to the SCSO.

Mincks also contacted the SRO at Suwannee High, Deputy Zach Clark, who was shown the original social media post by the Suwannee student, SCSO said.

According to the SCSO, that post appeared to reference a school in Bradford County, Florida, and Clark contacted the Bradford County Sheriff’s Office, which was aware of the post but also knew it was an old post and was actually in reference to a Louisiana school.

The lockdown at Branford lasted around 20-30 minutes, the SCSO said, adding that tensions were further intensified when the power went off during that time as well.

According to the SCSO, there was never an active shooter on the BHS campus nor students injured, as was sent out in a text from a student to a parent.

St. John said while unfortunate, the situation did allow a trial run of the procedures the school district and sheriff’s office have put into place.

“I just want to commend the SRO’s for jumping on it and I want to commend the school officials for putting the protocol in,” St. John said. “Everything went smoothly as far as following protocol.

“Naturally there were some anxious parents wanting to know what was going on, and that’s understandable.”