Rebekah Jones’ Son Arrested Over Alleged School Threats, She Claims Gov. DeSantis ‘Kidnapped’ Him
“My family is not safe. My son has been taken on the gov’s orders, and I’ve had to send my husband and daughter out of state for their safety. THIS is the reality of living in DeSantis’ Florida. There is no freedom here. Only retaliatory rule by a fascist who wishes to be king.”
Disgraced former Florida Dept. of Health IT staffer Rebekah Jones is in the news again, and as usual, she’s (falsely) portraying herself and her family as victims of the supposedly tyrannical rule of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Jones, as Legal Insurrection readers will recall, went from famous to infamous in a relatively short period of time in the spring and summer of 2020 after CNN’s Chris Cuomo and Big Media outlets in Florida took her allegations that she was fired by DeSantis for what she says was refusing to falsify COVID dashboard data at face value.
Jones was exposed as less than honest in short order, but unfortunately, that didn’t keep the Useful Idiots in the press from showering her with accolades.
Case in point: On the morning of December 7th, 2020, Jones was treated to a visit from the Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement (FDLE) after a complaint had been filed by the Dept. of Health claiming someone hacked into their emergency messaging system, which turned out to be Jones. Jones lied about it on Twitter, saying they were there on DeSantis’ orders.
The latest on the long list of manipulation attempts by Jones came on Wednesday when Jones jumped on the Twitter machine to claim that her son had been “taken on the gov’s orders” and that she’d “had to send my husband and daughter out of state for their safety”:
My family is not safe. My son has been taken on the gov's orders, and I've had to send my husband and daughter out of state for their safety.
THIS is the reality of living in DeSantis' Florida.
There is no freedom here. Only retaliatory rule by a fascist who wishes to be king
— Rebekah Jones (@GeoRebekah) April 6, 2023
She later tweeted that DeSantis and law enforcement officers had “kidnapped” her son:
Two weeks later, bringing us to earlier today, an officer told me the state issued a warrant for my son’s arrest for “digital threats of terrorism.”
I asked on whose orders. The officer said it was the state.
They aren’t letting him come home tonight. They kidnapped my son.
— Rebekah Jones (@GeoRebekah) April 6, 2023
Jones says they were there in retaliation over the lawsuit she recently filed against the Florida Dept. of Health seeking her job back along with back wages.
The real story, of course, is not the dramatic one Jones painted. First and foremost, the below video shows Jones, following a felony warrant being issued for her son’s arrest, turning him in on Wednesday to the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office, where he was later arrested on charges that he allegedly threatened to shoot up a school he once attended. Beside them is her husband, the one she supposedly had to send away along with her daughter “for their safety”:
VIDEO: Rebekah Jones turns in her son at the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office for threatening to shoot up a middle school pic.twitter.com/7L9zAlwmPZ
— Max (@MaxNordau) April 6, 2023
Here are two more clips of Jones, which show her son in handcuffs:
VIDEO: Rebekah Jones sits by as her son is arrested by a Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Deputy for threatening to shoot up a middle school pic.twitter.com/lmWLq1k0OD
— Max (@MaxNordau) April 6, 2023
VIDEO: An officer arrests Rebekah Jones’ son and escorts him to a patrol car so that he can be processed by DJJ.
He was charged with a felony for threatening to shoot up a middle school.
Jones herself originally posted this video: https://t.co/2XAbV82oOnpic.twitter.com/9NWh8Tr6iJ
— Max (@MaxNordau) April 7, 2023
Here were the threats he allegedly made, according to reporting from the Pensacola News Journal:
Will you be deleting your tweets now or…? pic.twitter.com/5dQDplpRRn
— g (@gkvky6zffq) April 6, 2023
As I was writing this, Jones was busy on Twitter spinning a yarn and trying to discredit her critics. Keep in mind that her son is now home, according to her. But instead of spending every minute with him, she’s devoting her time to trying to garner social media sympathy and raise money (yes, she has posted a link to a fundraising page, which I won’t directly link to).
And she was so worried about him that she spent all day on twitter
— Brad Reynolds (@Brad_Reynoldss) April 7, 2023
Vice.com, which is not exactly DeSantis-friendly territory, wrote a detailed piece debunking a lot of what Jones has claimed so far. Jason Koebler, one of the writers of the Vice story, also tweeted out a lengthy Twitter thread dissecting and debunking Jones’ claims:
We have read the unredacted police report, which was misinterpreted by the Miami Herald and is being misrepresented by Jones. All available evidence suggests all threats & memes in the warrant came from a single Snapchat account, not two:https://t.co/Oqe6uAkZ7k
— Jason Koebler (@jason_koebler) April 7, 2023
– She said that police were acting on an anonymous tip. Police report shows they spoke to at least four children between ages of 12 and 13, who had seen these threats. All of their names and addresses are included in the police report.https://t.co/K4jdIgJvjx
— Jason Koebler (@jason_koebler) April 7, 2023
I spoke to Jones on the phone today and asked her how she was sure that her son didn't send these messages. She said she checked his phone and didn't see them, so that's how she knew. Snapchat messages (still) autodelete by default and can only be retained if purposefully saved pic.twitter.com/lk3fMVyMzm
— Jason Koebler (@jason_koebler) April 7, 2023
Nothing about this story is nice, and it is a traumatic even for these children, Jones, her son, everyone. But there’s simply not any public evidence that this arrest was politically motivated, and lots of evidence that it was borne out of a sincere public safety concern
— Jason Koebler (@jason_koebler) April 7, 2023
Contrast how Vice handled the story to how the Jones apologists at the Miami Herald initially “reported” the news:
You can see archives of various versions of the story here. https://t.co/2X94cBKYal
— Damin Toell (@damintoell) April 7, 2023
Seriously, @MiamiHerald, delete your account. https://t.co/261rtpWHB4
— Sister Toldjah 💙 (@sistertoldjah) April 6, 2023
Jones should do the same, but she won’t because she feeds off of manipulating others and playing the victim card. Twitter is likely one of the few places left where she can find the occasional sympathetic supporter, but even in those instances, it is usually someone who—like Jones—has a vested interest in trying to damage DeSantis.
In any event, we’ll see how this story, and Jones’ lawsuit, plays out in the coming weeks and months, so stay tuned.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Shes a reliable as Dictyaor Demenita. This isn’t her first time bing on the wrong side.
Lots of Cray Cray Karens out there walking around and this woman might be in the running for poster child.
She’s mother of the year.
If they’re all in so much danger there, why haven’t they moved?
S’s
Not necessary and not good in this instance, when the next word also starts with an “s.”
Wrong and irrelevant. What appears is the plural possessive of Jone. Same mistake with governor’s name. Bridget Jones’s Diary. Even Hollywood got it right. I understand some very permissive style manuals allow it. Jones’s Son actually sounds much better than Jones’ son. I don’t know where you came up with that one. It provides a very pleasant z sound to break up the crude collision of two s sounds.
You make good points. But it stands.
Don’t call us grammer nazi’s (we prefer ALT-WRITE)
There’s crazy … and then there is Rebekah Jones crazy.
Also, Forbes “Technology Person of the Year” – your friendly reminder as to how deep media bias runs.
She flat out lied and the media just ran with it.
Deb Frisch is reading this article right now (in the prison library, under heavy supervision), shaking her head and muttering “damn, bitches be cra-cray”.
One solution to prevent a tragedy is to bar this 13-year old from entering the premises of any public school in Florence for life.
Florida not Florence.
Hardly. It’s not like he’s going to make an appointment. Nobody in any school is going to figure out who this kid is until the coroner tells them.
“THIS is the reality of living in DeSantis’ Florida. There is no freedom here. Only retaliatory rule by a fascist who wishes to be king.”
Jeepers, woman, just shut up, move to New Jersey, and raise the average IQ of both states.
And she really thinks her psychosis is going to help her son?
And the video she took of his arranged arrest is going to help his case? Who the hell would video their son being arrested in this instance?
She’s the one who needs a 72 hour time-out. She’s bat schitt crazy!
Baker Act, do your thing!
She has been fired for misconduct from almost every substantial job she has had as an adult and narrowly escaped being criminally charged for several of those acts such as stealing computers from a school. What she needs is some time in jail.
We need common sense SSRI regulation
Poor kid – poor Husband! Get this woman some HELP! She is obviously mentally unstable. You have to wonder if it’s a long time mental illness that had not been treated or just a slightly more zealous DEMOcrat in action! This should be her last “claim to fame” and she should be treated like all the other crazies who stand on the street with a sign “World End Tomorrow”!
Her kid surely seems to be in need of treatment – you have to wonder how much HER ideology has poisoned his little mind!