Calvary Christian Academy issued an alert to parents amid a significant police presence at the Fort Lauderdale school on Monday – an alert based on false or accidental information, police said.
The Fort Lauderdale Police Department said the school sent the alert to parents after receiving an alert via a phone app, citing the police responded to "false/accidental information in regards to possible shots fired from an app on phone."
No intruder entered on campus. As of 4 p.m., schoolchildren began leaving buildings to meet worried parents – some whom were on the periphery of the school praying, some crying.
Parents said the school, located at 2401 W Cypress Creek Rd., was possibly on lockdown.
"Dear parents, we received an alert on our School Guard app and are taking every precaution necessary to ensure the safety of our students and faculty," the school said to parents via text message.
The FLPD said its officers responded to a weapons complaint, adding that no shooting incident occurred and there were no shots fired.
"They were saying that a shooting was going on and we're under lockdown," sixth-grade student Janae Hamilton said. "I was so scared and frightened. I prayed to God that everything would be OK."
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The incident, naturally, caused her mother to worry.
"I kept calling and no one was answering the school phone, you know, so thank God, thank God, thank God -- eventually she text me and told me she was OK," Patrice Hamilton said. "I was just praying the whole time and I'm so thankful that she's OK and out well."
The school is attempting to identify who sent the alert, as well as working to determine whether human error or a glitch is to blame for the phone app incident.
