Fort Myers, FL: Autistic boy jailed overnight after false accusation

Sept 23, 2021, Orlando (FL) Sentinel: 12-year-old with autism spent night in jail after school trheat accusation: report https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/florida/os-ne-12-year-old-with-autism-spent-night-in-jail-after-school-threat-accusation-20210924-b6j5jddqdjfbrbfmhullklmseu-story.html

A Florida 12-year-old with autism spent a night in jail last week after he was accused of making a school threat via email, but his parents and attorney say the boy wasn’t the one who send the message.

The family may sue, saying the experience traumatized the child, a student at Three Oaks Middle School in Fort Myers, Wink News reported.

No charges will be filed against the boy. The Lee County Sheriff’s Office says it has identified another suspect.

After a teacher received an email that read, “I’m taking a gun to school on Friday; I’m going to kill ever one,” a school resource officer went to the student’s home, because he wasn’t in school that day.

The school resource officer interviewed the boy alone and then arrested him. “Interviewing an autistic 12-year-old without his mother present is almost never OK,” attorney Malcam Godwin told the TV station.

Godwin said the boy doesn’t use spaces when typing, which he says proves his client did not write the email.