Jean Vanier Secondary School went into lockdown Wednesday after a man called Halton police in the morning saying he had a bomb in the area.

Police spokesperson Chantal Corner said the call came in shortly before 10:30 a.m. and the explosive disposal unit and SWAT team established a safety perimeter around the school — near Bronte Street South and Louis Saint Laurent Avenue.

The students were released from the school shortly before 3 p.m. and taken by Milton Transit buses to the Milton Sports Centre, where anxious parents were waiting.

Police continued to investigate at the school after the students were evacuated.

Grade 11 student Mohammed Ali was in law class when an announcement came over the intercom telling students to stay in their classrooms.

“We had the principal say that we needed to be in lockdown,” Ali told the Champion via text message. “That’s the first thing that happened, then we just sat on the floor and wondered what was happening.”

Ali said the students figured out that there was a bomb threat only by searching through Twitter and reading reports from the media.

Andrew Boyle, a Grade 10 student at the school, told the Champion via text messages that students sat on the floors with classroom lights off. Teachers, who are also on the floor, supervised the students from inside their classrooms.

Both students said they saw police entering and exiting the building but that no officers had came to through their classrooms.

Some students reported hearing dogs barking in the halls and the sound of locks being cut off the lockers.