Egged on by his friends, a 17-year-old boy called schools across South Florida and warned of coming bloodshed. Panic ensued and the teens delighted in it, sharing links to reports of lockdowns and frightened parents.
"UR ON THE NEWS," one wrote. "THERE ARE SO MANY F***ING COPS. LMAOALO"
Jayden Bullard, now 19, showed none of that bravado Wednesday. Deputies escorted him into in a West Palm Beach courtroom, where he soon agreed to a deal with prosecutors that spared him from prison for his 2024 bomb threat to Boca Raton High School but cemented his status as a convicted felon.
Circuit Judge Bradley Harper sentenced the Central Florida man to a year and two weeks in the Palm Beach County Jail, with credit for the year and two weeks he's already spent
in custody.
The judge noted that Bullard, prior to his 2025 arrest, had no criminal history. He now has felonies in several states, all stemming from bomb threats and prank "swatting" calls made to schools and law-enforcement offices across the country.
"Swatting" is when someone calls 911 to make false reports about violence that would prompt a large law-enforcement response, such as a SWAT team deployment.
One such call, hours after Bullard's bomb threat to Boca Raton High, sent bands of Louisiana law enforcement to the apartment of 18-year-old Angel Bonilla, who'd been swatted at least five times previously.
Bonilla told investigators the calls were likely made by people he knew from online chat rooms and social media with whom he'd been "having issues."
He said he and his former friends had called hoax threats to schools in other states. Louisiana authorities arrested Bonilla in January 2025 and worked with agencies in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties to arrest Bullard the following September.
Arrest reports from the various agencies described a chatroom on the website Discord, where the teenagers plotted bomb threats and swatting calls to schools in Florida, Louisiana, New York and Colorado.
They discussed where to call, what to say — "the devil sent me to do this" — and when to hang up. Amid celebrations about the havoc that followed, they offered assurances: "They don't know where these calls come from."
‘Be a man about it,’ officers told 17-year-old bomb threat suspect
An FBI agent, a Palm Beach County schools detective and a Louisiana investigator arrived with a search warrant at Bullard's Leesburg home in April 2025. They brought him to an interrogation room at a nearby police station and, without his parents present, encouraged him to confess.
According to Miami-Dade court records, the officers told Bullard the matter was a small speed bump, that he should “be a man about it” and “take the punishment." At 17, they said, he had his “entire life ahead” of him.
Bullard agreed to talk and was arrested five months later. He remained in the Palm Beach County Jail in lieu of a $100,000 bond, attending his Louisiana and Miami court dates via Zoom. He appeared in person Wednesday for his final hearing in West Palm Beach.
Bullard didn't object to the prosecutor's retelling of the crime or explain his motivation behind it. Asked whether he understood that, by pleading guilty, he would lose his rights to vote, serve on a jury and access a firearm, Bullard agreed.
"I wish you the best, young man," the judge said.
Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. Reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Teens gloated as bomb threats shut Florida schools | 'UR ON THE NEWS’
