HOUSTON – A student was arrested and charged after making a threat on social media to Stevenson Middle School, which prompted a brief lockdown Monday, according to officials.
Tracy Clemmens, a spokesman for the Houston Independent School District, said authorities were made aware of the threat in the morning and the school was placed on lockdown. That lockdown was lifted about a half-hour later, Clemmens said. HISD police later said that the lockdown actually lasted two hours.
Police said the threat made reference to shooting up the school.
"It was pretty horrifying, to be honest," Stevenson student Santiago Velazquez said. "(I was) sitting in the back, trying to be quiet and see what was going on outside."
The student accused of making the threat was found off campus, Clemmens said. The student was charged with making a terroristic threat, police said.
"I believe it said a comment about a willingness to come shoot people at school,” said the HISD Interim Chief of Police Paul Cordova. "So whether or not you intend, or have the wherewithal to complete that threat, you can still be charged for making that threat in the first place."
Clemmens said that officials want to assure parents that everyone at the school is safe and there is no need to pick up their children.
Magaly Medina, a mother of an eighth-grader at Stevenson, said she rushed down to pick up her child after hearing about the threat.
"It's kind of weird because there have been too many things like this," Medina said. "I feel fear for him and come."
Police said more officers have been assigned to HISD schools that have received threats.
Monday's incident was the latest in a string of threats to Houston-area schools since 17 people were killed during a rampage at a Parkland, Florida, school last week.
Klein Independent School District police said that Joseph Beville, 18, is accused of threatening to show off and use a gun at Klein High School. He was charged with exhibition of firearms.
Lequina Washington faces the same charge after police said he threatened to show and use a gun at Klein Forest High School.