Florida high school students facing felony charges for staging fake shooting that set off panic

A group of Florida high school students are facing felony charges and possible expulsion after a “cruel” school shooting prank that sent terrified kids sprinting for cover, officials said.

According to the Daytona Beach Department students scrawled a promise to shoot up Mainland High School on a bathroom wall last Thursday.

Cops probed the threat and deemed it unfounded.

“This type of graffiti on this particular bathroom stall has become a common occurrence,” the department said in a Facebook post.

The following day, two separate groups of students plotted to “capitalize” on the unease created by the message by staging a shooting, officials said.

“The groups can clearly be seen on video, getting into specific positions and locations within the cafeteria, timing their actions,” the department stated.

Several female suspects can be seen on surveillance footage smiling and laughing until they approached a school administrator and told them “someone had a gun.”

Another male participant waited until their collaborators talked to the staffer before suddenly running down a hallway.

That set off a panic, as other spooked students began running for safety.

Police said surveillance footage never showed the presence of a gun on the campus.

“This entire incident appears to have been a cruel prank by several students that has now gotten out of control due to internet trolls, misinformed people and in some cases, people that are not even in Florida, or have kids that go to school at Mainland,” police said.

Authorities said the perpetrators are now facing felony raps for “a false report concerning the use of firearms in a violent manner against a person or persons.”

The outraged department is also recommending that they face expulsion.

Daytona police said they released the lengthy post on the incident to dispel “rumors, conspiracy theories and lies floating around on social media about Friday’s events.”

The ill-advised prank comes as a jury weighs the fate of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz, who killed 14 students and 3 staffers in one of the worst mass killings in American history in 2018.

Jurors will decide if Cruz gets the death penalty or life in prison.