On March 2, 2017, two students set off a firecracker in a trashcan in the alcove of Renegade Hall. As of now, only the student who directly set off the firecracker has been caught and will most likely be expelled and reprimanded under the law.

Junior Jandrick Castro said, “I heard a loud noise and everyone started running. I think that other people were really scared [at the time of the disruption]. Personally, I didn’t think it was that serious.”

The student, who will remain unnamed, violated several Seminole County Public School rules in their actions. For example, the student directly violates the school policy regarding campus disruption.

Seminole High School security Officer Heather Smart stated that the student is likely to be criminally charged with a major campus disruption, but the student can go through the Civil Citation Program to remove the charges from the student’s record.

However, it is unlikely the student will be charged with possession of an explosive. Regardless of the “explosive” nature of a firecracker, the state of Florida has a law that allows the possession of an explosive as long as they are not released in the air, according to Smart. Despite this, the student was still in violation of the Seminole County Public Schools policy against firecrackers on campus.

Additionally, the student may only be charged with a misdemeanor since the violation occurred on campus and the same charges do not apply, according to Smart.

Despite the chaotic nature of this disruption, the Seminole High School staff and security were able to respond quickly. The administrators were already in the area to ensure that no students were wandering during lunch and were able to catch the perpetrator almost immediately.

This violation follows a series of false threats and disturbances all of Seminole County Public Schools have been experiencing over the last few weeks, such as the fake bomb threats at Lyman, Lake Mary, and Seminole High School. On the same day as this disruption, Seminole State College was on lockdown after a student brought a firearm onto campus as well.

There is still concern that due to the string of meaningless disruptions, students will begin to take similar threats less seriously and fail to respond appropriately if a real situation arises. However, school resource officers ensure that this is not the case and they will continue to investigate every threat.

“I understand people’s opinions on [the idea that this is] the boy-who-cried-wolf, but we take every threat very seriously. We investigated it, the other officers at other campuses investigated their threats as well and found nothing credible to be in it. We will continue to do so,” said Smart. “We want people to know that if they have any information as to who’s [making these threats], they should give us a call.”

**Disclaimer: This article is purely based on probable circumstances and accounts from students and staff near the incident.**