DA on Wakefield school shooting hoax: 'This kind of behavior has got to stop'

"Kids have got to get the message that this kind of behavior has got to stop," Freeman said, adding that the two students, whose names haven't been released because they are under 18, will face "ramifications ... in the juvenile system as well as in the school system."

The incident started Thursday morning with a 911 call from Wakefield High School.

The caller told the 911 dispatcher that three intruders were near the school's football field, in the area of Wakefield Pines Drive, and that shots were fired.

Law enforcement and Wake County Public School System officials scrambled, putting the three Wakefield schools on a tight lockdown as officers combed the area.

After about an hour of searching, police found no gunman and said there was no evidence shots had ever been fired.

"Every time, we'll treat it as the real deal until someone else can say that it is not," 911 supervisor Robert Parrish said, adding that dispatchers don't stop to question why there were no other calls about a school shooting.

"[The priority is] getting the appropriate among of resources going in the direction as quickly as possible," Parrish said.

No charges have been filed in the case yet, but Freeman said the two students will likely face a charge of making a false report to police, which is a misdemeanor.

Under state law, making a threat to commit mass violence at a school is a felony, but Freeman said the 911 caller only invented a story about a threat and didn't actually make one. Still, she said, the felony statute should cover a hoax call like Thursday's.

"When people who think they might be involved in some kind of a joke are giving parents and others real reason to believe that their children might be in danger, I think that's serious," Freeman said.

"I am concerned that kids today would think that there is anything funny about this," she added. "They need to sit down with the students from Parkland [Fla.} and hear firsthand about the terror and the profound loss when we have an event of mass violence at a school, and they have to realize there is nothing to be joked about in this arena."

Wakefield High Principal Malik Bazzell sent a message to parents Thursday night saying the sole purpose of the call was to disrupt campus. Both students will be disciplined by the school, he said.