A 15-year-old Hoover City Schools student has been charged with a misdemeanor crime following an “alarming message” received by another student via iPhone AirDrop at school earlier this week.

On Tuesday, a student at RC3 – the Riverchase Career Connection Center – received an AirDrop message that read “tomorrow all chocolate kids will die.” The student immediately alerted school officials who then notified Hoover police.

RC3 opened this year with five anchor programs: Culinary Arts and Hospitality Academy (cooking, serving, event management), Cyber Innovation Academy (programming, network administration, cyber-security), Fire and Emergency Services Academy (firefighting, emergency medical assistance), Health Science Academy (nursing, pharmacy, emergency services), and Skilled Trades Academy (building construction, electrical, HVAC, and welding).

Superintendent Kathy Murphy said they pulled security camera footage of when the AirDrop happened. Knowing the student sending an AirDrop had to be within a 30-foot perimeter, they used the footage to draw the perimeter around the student who received it. They studied the facial expressions of the students within the perimeter and identified a few who raised suspicion.

School officials, SRO’s and detectives interviewed several witnesses, said Lt. Keith Czeskleba. One of those – a sophomore boy – confessed to sending the threatening message.

Superintendent Kathy Murphy told AL.com the student who sent the message and the student who received the message both are African American. “It’s difficult to call the incident racially-motivated when the students are the same race,” Murphy said.

“Our department takes all threats seriously and particularly if they appear to be racially-motivated,’’ said Hoover police Chief Nick Derzis. “That’s something that cannot and will not be tolerated. “

“We were aware of certain information very early into this investigation that led us to believe that this threat was not credible,’’ he said, “and we distributed that information as soon as we could, trying to cause the least disruption, and also not to jeopardize some interviews that we had to conduct.”

Police said although the threat never appeared to be credible, it caused a significant disruption in school activities, with some parents electing not to send their children to school. Additional security measures were put in place as a precaution. Roughly 30 students did not attend school Tuesday.

Detectives presented the facts of the case to a Shelby County Juvenile Court magistrate, and a warrant for harassing communications was issued against the student. “This situation did not rise to the level of a terroristic threat type event, but it still caused many students and parents to be concerned and alarmed,’’ said Hoover Capt. Gregg Rector. “We feel that this student has certainly been charged with the appropriate offense and he will be handled as he should in the juvenile court system.”

The student will be brought before a Shelby County Juvenile Court judge once the petition is served. Because this case involves a minor, no further information will be released, police said.

Hoover City Schools’ spokesman Jason Gaston said the student’s discipline in this case will be handled according to the Student Code of Conduct

“This is such a teachable moment for all of us,’’ Murphy said. “That we understand that even though we may be tech-savvy, that there are ways of recovering things that are being snapchatted and airdropped.”

“We are very passionate about the safety of our children,’’ she said, “so we are going to invest the time and energy and resources into making sure they are safe.”

AL.com journalist Trisha Powell Crain contributed to this report.