A school threat over lunch portions? Police say angry Florida mom left a phone message
A mother who was accused of making a bomb threat via voicemail to a Florida high school because she thought the school wasn’t feeding her children enough food has bonded out of jail.
According to a Cocoa Police Department arrest affidavit dated April 7, Anaya Metoya Smith, 41, called Cocoa High School at around 5:30 p.m. Feb. 3 and left a message concerning the amount of food her son was served at lunch.
Apparently, her son had gotten into a verbal spat with a cafeteria worker who denied him the extra food he wanted, the report said. By the time an arrest report was filed on April 7, her son was no longer at Cocoa High, according to police.
Police say Smith left a message that said: “If you don’t start feeding my mother [expletive] children better at that [expletive] I’m gonna come round that [expletive] and blow that mother [expletive] up you dumb [expletive] ....”
The caller did not leave her name, the arrest report said. But the school’s caller ID said the number matched Smith’s cellphone.
The next morning after school officials played the recording Cocoa High was temporarily evacuated. A search of the property yielded nothing of any harm.
Smith was charged with a felony charge of making a false report to bomb state property and a misdemeanor charge of disrupting a school function and booked into Brevard County jail Wednesday. She was released on Thursday after paying the $5,000 bond on the felony charge and $250 bond on the misdemeanor count.
But in an interview with an Orlando TV station, Smith’s sister Andrea Smith said Anaya had been “falsely accused.”
Andrea, embracing her sister outside of Brevard County Jail, said the caller ID match on the arrest report does not mean Anaya placed the call.
“She doesn’t have that number. That’s not her number. She’s been falsely accused based on documentation that was messed up at Cocoa High School,’’ Andrea told the station on its broadcast. She also said the student named on the arrest report is not Anaya’s son.
But Cocoa Beach Officer Michael Cox, who signed the arrest affidavit, wrote on the report: “It should be noted that I have had numerous encounters with Mrs. Smith as recent as January 2022 and recognize the voice on the voicemail to be that of Mrs. Smith.”
Cocoa police are referring media inquiries to the affidavit. A News 6 reporter said Thursday the number was out of service when it placed a call.
‘’It’s all going to be cleared up and we’re going to take care of her, but there are definitely some people who need to be held accountable because this is not the way that it’s supposed to go,’’ Andrea Johnson told the station.
