(PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE)

Lakewood High School was placed on lockdown this morning after a student threatened to ‘blow up’ or ‘shoot up’ the school, TLS reported.

The middle school across the street was also placed on lockdown as a precaution, though no threat against it existed.

The alarm was raised at around 10 AM, after the Lakewood Police website received an email with the threats. They quickly determined it came from the high school, and had identified a possible suspect.

Lakewood Police and Officers and K9 units from the Ocean County Sheriff’s Department responded to the scene. The lockdown was lifted at around 11:55.

Two 17-year-old classmates were detained. One student was identified as having sent the threat, while the other allowed him to use his identifiers.

The second student was not charged, as police determined that the student who sent the mail tried to implicate the classmate, who was not aware of the threat.

Det. Lt. Gregory Staffordsmith said in a statement:

Earlier this morning we received an email, via our department website, that made reference to “blowing up” or “shooting up” an unnamed school.  Upon receiving the threat, Detectives immediately took steps to identify the location from which the email was sent. Within a few minutes we were able to determine that it was sent from the Lakewood High School and had the name of a potential suspect.

The information was relayed to our Officers assigned to the schools as well as responding personnel. After advising school administrators, a decision was made to lock-down the students in place by school officials. Officers and K9 units from the Ocean County Sheriff’s Department ensured that the school was free from explosive devices.

Further investigation by Detectives Mike Cavallo and Lynn Miller, revealed after speaking with two 17 year old students, that the email was sent as a hoax. One of the students sent our website the email but used the other students identifiers.  Both students were attending a Business Law class at the time the message was sent from a school computer. It was later determined that the student who’s identifiers were used did not play a role in the hoax.

As a result, the juvenile who was determined to have sent the unamusing message was charged with Creating a False Public Alarm and Terroristic Threats. He was released a short time later pending a juvenile hearing.

See more: TLS