ASHEBORO, N.C. — Asheboro High School has been cleared after a reported bomb threat on Friday, according to Randolph County Sheriff's Office.
Deputies said no devices or suspects were found inside the school.
The Asheboro Police Department received the call around 9:21 a.m. from a person who said they put bombs inside the school. They said they were armed with a weapon and would enter the school.
The School Resource Officer assigned to Asheboro High School was immediately notified, and additional Asheboro Police responded to the school.
The high school was evacuated and all other Asheboro City schools entered into a shelter-in-place.
Since the all-clear was given, Asheboro City School students on all campuses finished the school day.
But the whole situation left parents shaken, hoping to reunite with their kids as quickly as possible.
Mary Arellano was one of them – worried about her son, who has special needs.
“I’m just terrified. I’m terrified at what he’s in there thinking and feeling, and him not knowing, where is my mommy? Where is my daddy? And he’s just scared. He’s never experienced anything like this,” she said.
Alisia Beraza was also anxiously waiting for her son and daughter to be released from the shelter in place.
She says Friday's events and others around the state this week are forcing her to reconsider how her little girl gets her education.
"If I can pull her out and homeschool her, I would do it in a heartbeat, if I knew I didn’t need all the qualifications or I didn’t need a certain license to do it, I would do it. I would do it if I was able to take her home," said Beraza.
Students also questioned whether they should return back to school.
"This makes me not even want to come to school because our world is so messed up like almost every day. We can't even go to the first week of school without a school shooting a bomb threat," said Madison Dillon, a student at Asheboro High School.
"It's just crazy how bad our world is and that we can't even go to school without knowing that we're safe," she said.
For over three hours, kids stayed in their safe locations until they were released after 1:30 p.m. School dismissed at the usual time.
Police haven’t arrested whoever called in the threat.
According to the FBI, making a hoax threat against a school is a serious federal crime. Those who post or send threats can spend up to five years in federal prison – or they can face state or local charges.
Asheboro City Schools is made up of one high school, two middle schools, five elementary schools, and an early child development center. There are about 4,000 total in the district.
