The arrest of a Florida teenager for allegedly threatening a school shooting has reignited a bitter feud between a former health department analyst fired after she accused the state of covering up Covid data, and Republican governor Ron DeSantis.
The 13-year-old is the son of Rebekah Jones, the founder of Florida’s pandemic database, who clashed frequently with DeSantis after her dismissal on grounds of insubordination.
According to officials in Santa Rosa county, the boy made online threats in February to “shoot up” a middle school or stab people, resulting in a charge of internet-related terrorism.
But in a Twitter thread, Jones claimed her son Jackson was “kidnapped on the governor’s orders” as retaliation for her filing a lawsuit last month to try to win her job back, and had been cleared as “not a threat” by police and school officials.
“That’s what they do in Florida: steal your children as political punishment,” she wrote.
Jones said her son only reposted internet memes about mass shootings in a Snapchat group with friends, yet was arrested and detained in a juvenile facility because “he has a target on his back”.
The Miami Herald reported on Thursday that the youth was arrested on Wednesday.
Jones, a Democrat who lost her challenge for DeSantis ally Matt Gaetz’s congressional seat in November, tweeted that she suspected her son’s social media was being spied on.
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