Inset: Brandie Covington (Brevard County Sheriff”s Office). Background: Rockledge High School in Rockledge, Florida (Google Maps).
A woman is facing accusations of threatening to set fire to a Florida high school after her daughter’s boyfriend was denied a school-provided lunch.
Brandie Covington, aged 40, is charged with making a threat to use a destructive device, as noted in an arrest report examined by Law&Crime. This incident reportedly took place on Tuesday morning, well into the school day.
Around 10:50 a.m., a call was made to the cafeteria at Rockledge High School in Rockledge, Florida. The caller, later identified as Covington, was upset because her daughter’s boyfriend had his school lunch withdrawn due to insufficient funds in his account, according to the affidavit.
A cafeteria worker attempted to explain the school’s procedure for handling scenarios when a student runs out of lunch money, but Covington allegedly began shouting and using profanity. Despite efforts to defuse the situation, Covington’s threats reportedly escalated.
The court document indicates that Covington threatened to “burn the school down,” later adding a threat to “blow that f— school up.” Following the call, the cafeteria employee reported the threat to the school’s resource officer, according to authorities.
The cafeteria employee hung up the phone and told the school’s resource officer about the threat, authorities say.
Not five minutes had passed when Covington allegedly made another threatening call, this time to the vice principal.
The woman “identified herself as Covington” and stated, once again, that she “was upset that her daughter’s boyfriend did not get his lunch one day due to the lack of funds in his account,” according to the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office.
The school official reportedly told the mother he could not talk about the situation given she was not related to the student, though he did try to explain the school’s process in such situations, as the cafeteria employee did. Once again, Covington was allegedly not pleased.
“Covington began to cuss and scream at him and stated several times that she would burn the school down, before she hung up the phone,” the affidavit reads.
The school resource officer was notified again.
About three hours later, investigators showed up at the woman’s home. After being read her Miranda rights, she “acknowledged the two (2) phone calls she made to Rockledge High School earlier this morning regarding her daughter’s boyfriend’s lunch being taken away from him by cafeteria personnel,” deputies said.
Covington allegedly “acknowledged she was ‘pissed’ when she made both calls” because last week she had called and was told a school employee would call her back, but they never did.
Investigators said her statement was “mostly consistent” with what the cafeteria worker and vice principal said happened, but Covington “denied making any kind of threat” against the school.
The defendant was subsequently arrested and booked in the Brevard County Jail.
She was released on Thursday on a bond of $75,000, according to Orlando-based CBS affiliate WKMG.
