Schools in a Lansing-area district will be closed Wednesday as staff, students and families recover from a false report of a shooting, a chilling alert that prompted police to respond quickly and prompted the evacuation of hundreds of teens .
Officers arrived at Okemos High School three minutes after a morning call about a shooting, but there was no violence, Meridian Township Police Chief Ken Plaga said.
Schools in Detroit, Jackson, Ann Arbor, Muskegon, Benton Harbor, Battle Creek and Portage received similar shooting hoaxes Tuesday, state police said.
SUSPECT IN MICHIGAN SCHOOL SHOOTING POSTED OUTSTANDING THREAT ON SOCIAL MEDIA DAY BEFORE TRAGEDY: LAWSUIT
“It’s not a joke,” said FBI agent David Porter.
“Unfortunately, we live in an era where we see what happens when this is real,” he said, adding: “When you make false reports like this, it’s dangerous and it’s a crime. You put people at risk.”
Schools in a Lansing, Michigan-area district will be closed Wednesday, following the issuance of a school shooting threat later determined to be false.
Tina Kerr, executive director of the Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators, called it “a traumatic day” across the state.
The Okemos district, which has 4,500 students, is east of Lansing in Ingham County. The high school was closed after the report of a shooting.
“I saw a couple of students literally have a mental breakdown, like they had to calm them down,” said Sana Baig, a student.
LOLLAPALOOZA SECURITY GUARD ARRESTED FOR ALLEGEDLY CARRYING OUT FALSE MASS SHOT THREAT TO LEAVE WORK EARLY
“That was scaring me more, too. I was like, ‘This is serious,'” Baig told The Detroit News. She said that she ran to a closet.
Okemos schools will be closed Wednesday, but mental health counselors will be available in the buildings.
“For many students and their families, the terror was all too real,” County Attorney John Dewane said.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
In October, nearly a year after four students were killed in a shooting at Oxford High School in southeast Michigan, a teenager pleaded guilty to terrorism and first-degree murder charges.
