Glitch blamed for emergency phone call to Wake parents

Parents of students enrolled in the Wake County Public School System said that they were called about an emergency at their child's school and were prompted to press 1 to hear more information about the emergency alert.

When they pressed the button on the phone, the message was in regard to a community meeting about student assignment.

"This is a blatant misuse of the emergency system and caused more than one parent to be extremely worried about their child," one person wrote in an email to WRAL News.

Wake schools spokesman Michael Evans said the message was intended to be a mass call about the informational meetings, similar to one that went out last week. It wasn't supposed to include the emergency alert notice, he said.

The message did not go out to all parents, he added, but it wasn't immediately clear how many received it.