Husband of teacher who exposed school shooting threat speaks to 9 Investigates

TITUSVILLE, Fla. — The husband of a teacher, who first spoke up about an apparent school shooting plot at Brevard’s Astronaut High School in 2017, is now sharing details about why he went to police.

He made the call to Titusville police after his wife’s chain of command at the school determined the threat to be unsubstantiated.

Two students were ultimately arrested for what was described as a "conspiracy" to shoot up Astronaut High School. One was found with weapons and a bulletproof vest inside his room, but police wouldn’t have found any of that without a call from the husband of a teacher.

“I’m not sure I'd have my wife today. I might be a widower, and there might be a bunch of families in our community that don't have their kids right now,” Tony Rachow told 9 Investigates.

After Tony Rachow went above his wife’s administrators, Titusville police searched one of the teen’s phones and found text conversations making reference to school shootings, including details about a planned attack against the school and students, with specific references about when the attack would take place.

Police searched further and found the same student had a rifle and other weapons including homemade axes, knives, shivs, machetes and a pistol in his room.

“I was shocked.  I really didn't know how far the rabbit hole would go, but I didn't think they would go that far, where they would find things in his room, and the level of commitment,” Rachow said.

9 Investigates first reported the school’s failure to notify a school resource officer about the alleged threat.

The near-miss prompted sweeping changes across all of Brevard’s campuses, requiring law enforcement to be notified of any potential threat.

All of Brevard County Public School’s campuses are going to a ‘single point of access’ with video monitoring and remote locking mechanisms by the end of this school year.

District leaders, however, did not tell parents about the incident until this month, more than a year after the initial incident, after 9 Investigates started asking questions.

“That’s a shame, because students may not know who he is, especially being as young as he is, he could walk right into the school and some may not know it,” Rachow said.

Titusville police have issued a trespass warning against that former student, so if he is caught on campus, he’ll be arrested. Rachow worries about his wife’s safety off campus as well, because the teen is set to become an adult in just two months.

“I’m worried she’ll run into him, when I’m not there,” Rachow said.

Rachow also said he’s disappointed in the decision for those teens to not have any charges on their records. Because adjudication was withheld against the student caught with the weapons, Eyewitness News is not naming the teen.

Cox Media Group