LAKELAND, FLA: A Lakeland Senior High School teacher has been placed on leave after he made comments on how we would commit a mass school shooting.
The comments were made during a school lockdown drill.
Parents of students at Lakeland Senior High School, in Lakeland Florida, received an alert that math teacher, Keith Cook, 51, had been placed under a risk protection order (RPO) on Wednesday. Cook remarked he would "be the best school shooter" with a "1,000 person body count".
Facebook
The RPO allows police to confiscate any weapons a suspect may have. They searched his car and home and found no weapons. According to NBC2, authorities interviewed around 16 students. The teacher told the students "if he were a school shooter he'd plant improvised explosive devices (IEDs), then "fire a couple rounds and wait for everyone to hide, then press a button and boom -- everyone would die," according to the student testimonies.
Superintendent of Polk County School District, Jacqueline M. Byrd says they are "cooperating fully with the law enforcement investigation as well as conducting our own internal investigation."
Polk County School District
"Every day, Polk County Public Schools is entrusted with the lives of more than 105,000 precious children. As superintendent, I will do everything I can to protect every single one of them," Byrd said. "Parents and students should be assured that we take any potential threat against our students and schools seriously. Student safety is and always will be paramount within our school district." Cook is scheduled to appear in court on August 30 for a hearing on a final risk protection order.
