Florida Sheriff Defends Making 10-Year-Old Do Perp Walk and Posting Mugshot Over Fake School Shooting Threat

A 10-year-old in Florida has been hit with charges after allegedly threatening a school shooting via text.

Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno defended his decision to post the fifth grader’s mugshot and make him do a “perp walk” on camera, following the threats, for the department’s Facebook page. During a Tuesday interview with Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy, Marceno did just that and called for a return to “old school” discipline, claiming that parents are now “afraid to discipline their kids.”

“When I was growing up, the nun hit you with a ruler, a wooden ruler,” the sheriff said, per Mediaite. “You understood what was right and wrong. And today what do we do? Society says if your parent disciplines you and there’s any kind of abuse, come forward so we can report your parent.”

Marceno added that the threat the boy made in relation to Patriot Elementary School in Cape Coral was “fake,” but that “now is not the time to act like a delinquent,” per his Twitter page. The threat came just days after an 18-year-old gunman killed 21 people—including 19 children—at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

The Youth Services Criminal Investigations Division has since taken control of the case given that the Florida child is 10-years-old. The boy, whose name has been shared by the department on social media, has been charged with making a written threat to conduct a mass shooting, per USA Today.

“This student’s behavior is sickening, especially after the recent tragedy in Uvalde, Texas,” Marceno wrote. “Making sure our children are safe is paramount. We will have law and order in our schools! My team didn’t hesitate one second…NOT ONE SECOND, to investigate this threat.”

Steve Little, whose son attends Patriot Elementary School and is in the same grade as the child who was arrested, told WINK that “even if it is a false threat it’s sad.”