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Police reports
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 25, 2003
MASARYKTOWN -- A 10-year-old girl was arrested Saturday morning for making false reports to 911. According to a Hernando County Sheriff's Office report, the girl's father told deputies she had done the same thing a week earlier and needed to go to jail. The charge of filing a false fire alarm is a misdemeanor.
The Times is withholding the girl's name because of her age.
Sheriff's spokesman Lt. Joe Paez said the department takes such cases seriously, and hopes other children will learn from the example. "We are interested in getting the word out that we'll arrest and charge and seek prosecution on someone that is abusing the 911 system," Paez said. "Kids sometimes play with the 911 system. We respond to all. We have no idea what is going on. It ties up manpower. That's why it concerns us." The girl was released to her father without bail.
BROOKSVILLE -- The Hernando County Health Department reported Monday that chicken pox is on the rise in Hernando County schools.
The disease is an infectious virus that spreads person to person by direct contact or through the air. A person with chicken pox is contagious one to two days before the rash appears, and it takes two to three weeks for a person to develop chicken pox after coming in contact with it.
Health Department officials recommend the chicken pox vaccine as the best way to prevent the disease. It is available through private physicians and public health clinics. Call the Health Department at 754-4067.