Two Windermere High School students questioned after threat prompts lockdown

Two Windermere High School students were questioned after a text message warning of a school shooting prompted a four-hour lockdown Thursday afternoon.

“Shooting at anytime today we are already inside Windermere High School be safe,” the text message read, said Orange County sheriff’s spokeswoman Deputy Ingrid Tejada-Monforte.

No students or staff members were injured. Deputies spent four hours searching the school and did not find any weapons.

“A message like that, we’re going to take it serious,” Tejada-Monforte said. “So we were clearing every hallway, every classroom, making sure there was nobody with a weapon.”

One of the students was found in the school and the other at home. Their names and ages were not released.

Deputies questioned them and then released them to the custody of their parents. They could face charges of disrupting a school function, which is a misdemeanor.

The text message spread quickly through social media, Tejada-Monforte said.

“That text went viral,” she said.

The school went on lockdown about noon.

The last class period usually ends at 2:10 p.m. on Thursdays, but some students were still under the lockdown until deputies cleared the campus at 4 p.m. All after-school events and practices were canceled, and worried parents lined up outside the school and waited to hear from their children.

Some students were told they could not use their cell phones during the lockdown because deputies did not want them spreading the threatening message further, Tejada-Monforte said.

Parents were notified via a recorded phone message.

“I know that there’s a lot of parents that are concerned and waiting, but we have our protocols in place, they’re being followed, and our top priority is student and staff safety,” said Lorena Hitchcock, an Orange County schools spokeswoman.

The school is on Winter Garden Vineland Road, near Ficquette Road. The building is new and just opened last month.

glotan@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5774

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