Former congressional candidate's son charged with felony for threatening to shoot up his school

The 13-year-old son of former Democratic congressional candidate and former Florida Health Department staffer Rebekah Jones, was charged with a second-degree felony for allegedly threatening online to shoot up his school, according to the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office.

Jones is also known for being a "COVID whistleblower" in 2020 who claimed she was fired for not manipulating COVID-19 numbers to politically benefit the DeSantis administration. 

Last December, Jones pleaded guilty to a felony with a deferred prosecution agreement for accessing a state computer system without authorization. She ended up signing a plea deal and agreed to pay $20,000, plus to see a licensed mental health professional at least once a month.  

Prosecutors had alleged that Jones used her access to the state computer system to send a mass text calling for state employees to speak out against Florida's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

She also ran for Congress in 2022 and lost the race to current GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz. 

Earlier this week after the probe into her son began, Jones suggested the probe was happening as revenge after she filed a lawsuit to get her job back at the Florida Health State Department. 

"If I get a gun I'm gonna shoot up hnms lol,” her son wrote in one online message, according to the Pensacola News Journal.

In another message on social media he wrote, "I'm getting a wrath and natural selection shirt so maybe but I don't think many ppl know what the columbine shooters look like."

Another one said, "Okay so it's been like 3-4 weeks since I got on my new antidepressants and they aren't working but they're suppose to by now so I have no hope in getting better so why not kill the losers at school."

Jones said that her son is autistic and shouldn't be punished for "spreading memes" which didn't warrant an arrest or constitute a legitimate threat. She also said some of the messages were from a separate account that didn't belong to her son. 

Jones claimed that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered the detainment of her son, calling the governor a "wanna-be fascist king."

Jones' son is currently on home detention and has a court date next month.