By MAURA GRUNLUND, KAYLA SIMAS

ROB BAILEY, SHANE DiMAIO

and EDDIE D'ANNA



STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A frightening scene unfolded at Susan Wagner High School Wednesday afternoon, when an unfounded report of a gun prompted a lockdown, a large NYPD response -- and hundreds of panicked parents to rush to the facility, some of whom received text messages from shaken children saying "I love you."

The report was deemed to be unfounded and there was no credible threat, police said.

Cops were first notified of the incident at 12:27 p.m., when a male caller stated that one student overheard another say there was a gun in the boys' lockeroom, according to an NYPD spokesman.

The school was placed on lockdown for several hours while police searched the building. No gun was found, there were no shots fired and no injuries were reported, the spokesman said.

Children remained on lockdown until 2:30 p.m. when they were finally dismissed to the crowd of hundreds of parents that had assembled in the street outside the school.

Both adults and students could be seen crying as they embraced after the ordeal.

‼️ATTENTION‼️ the investigation at Susan Wagner High School is complete. All is fine and there are NO threats. Vehicle traffic is now permitted in the area. — NYPD 122nd Precinct (@NYPD122Pct) February 28, 2018

The incident marked the latest unfounded report of a threat at a Staten Island school the NYPD received in the wake of the Parkland, Fla. massacre.

More than a dozen police cars and about a half dozen FDNY/EMS vehicles rushed to the 1200 Manor Road school.

Officers from the NYPD Strategic Response Team arrived wearing body armor and helmets. Cops were stationed at entrances to the school and no one was allowed in or out of the facility.

Several dozen parents and relatives who received text messages from shaken students inside Susan Wagner began arriving at the school desperate for information.

Some grew visibly angry when they could not find out what the situation entailed.

They began shouting at police as the front gates to the school were closed and parents were asked to step back, out of the street and onto the sidewalk.

One, who said he received a text from his son "begging to be rescued," demanded to be let into the school.

Parents were calmed by an off-duty officer who said he'd run to the scene from his home.

"I got him," said father Frank Duffy of Westerleigh, once his son, Linus, a freshman, was finally released.

Duffy said his son sent a message to him and his wife saying he loved them once the lockdown was initiated.

"I feel helpless and angry: No child deserves this. NYPD was well organized. Some parents were yelling and screaming. There are over a hundred parents here hugging their kids. The freshman seem most scared. They're all babies."

Parent Jenny Kelly of Westerleigh expressed feelings of helplessness over being "ill-informed with either no information or extreme information that isn't accurate," after hearing from her son, Michael, who's in the 11th grade.

"It's terrifying. My son called me -- whispering -- that they were on lockdown but didn't really know why. The reception in the school is terrible, so I couldn't hear him and had no idea what was happening," Kelly said. "... Every day, I have to send my boys off to school and worry about their safety. It's just the accepted reality. I have to turn my kids over to someone else for most of the day, and now, on top of that, I have to worry about their safety. About the safety of our educators."

Linda LaSalla said her granddaughter called in tears that someone had a gun in the school. She sounded nervous and told her grandmother she loved her.

"I don't feel safe," her granddaughter texted.

One senior at the school who was outside the building was worried about a younger sibling still inside.



"My little sister is hiding under a desk scared," the senior said. "How do they expect us to go back and feel safe. It's not normal to go to class where the teacher announces this is what you do if this happens."

"It's sad when a teacher with kids of her own says she would save us and not go home to her own," the senior said.

Said one junior: "We have soft lockdown drills on a [regular] basis, but today we were told hard lockdown and we ran out of the lunchroom."

One mother who spoke to the Advance outside the school said her daughter called her crying to come.

Another set of parents said their son called from his class, saying the teacher wouldn't let them in or out of the room.

City Councilman Steven Matteo, who has a child at the school, was among those at the scene and attempted to calm parents who feared the worst.

"There's a lot of misinformation right now," he told increasingly-agitated parents. "I'm a parent too. My son is in there too."

He was inside the school and said "the kids are in good spirits."

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