SOUTHBRIDGE, Mass. – Police responded in force to a Massachusetts high school after a students reported a classmate with a possible weapon.

Police, decked out with assault rifles, combed through Southbridge Middle/ High School Wednesday afternoon during a school lockdown after a student reported a classmate with a possible weapon around 1:30 p.m., MassLive.com reports.

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“The building was put into a shelter-in-place lockdown directly following notification to the police department, for safety reasons during the investigation,” according to a Southbridge Police statement.

“The alleged student was located and the building was swept. There was in fact no weapon.”

CBS Boston reports “a student was waving a stapler, and other students thought it was a gun.” None of the other news sites detailed the alleged weapon.

A person inside the school during the ordeal sent a picture to the news site of police officers strolling through the hallway with at least one wearing what appears to be a large assault rifle.

Students were eventually released around 2:50 p.m., according to My Fox Boston.

Neither police nor school officials detailed what action, if any, was taken against the alleged stapler.

“Students are now afraid of everything, thanks to a few idiots. Thanks to … other school shooting(s), our children have to be scared instead of learning,” Barbara Sylvain posted to Facebook. “Sad world we live in!”

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“My God WTH is going on in these schools?!” Lori-Anne Ferullo wrote.

“Paranoia self destroya,” Peter Crivello added.

Plenty of commenters online purported to know details of the situation, and many of them were convinced a student brought a gun to school.

“Kid is running around with a gun, that’s why they are on lockdown,” Heidi Andujar wrote.

“I have two in the school, from what I can find out, one in custody for bringing in a gun, but now they can’t find it!”

“A kid brought a gun to school. He was waiving it around. My daughter’s sister reported it …,” Kristen Malachowski wrote.

Others attempted to bring some reason to the hysteria.

“If there was a gun, it’s possible it was only a bb gun or an airsoft gun,” John Hilsmeyer posted. “No need to completely freak out.”

“It was a stapler that got mistaken for a gun. The kid was holding it to another person’s head, that’s why she thought it was a gun. Regardless, uncalled for and had everyone horrified …,” Ellen Gomes wrote.

Members of the Northeast Shooters forum also sounded off about the stapler incident.

“You can’t make this stuff up,” member RHJJ posted, along with a link to CBS Boston.

“Good thing it wasn’t an umbrella,” JWPaolilliJr wrote.

“Semi-automatic assault stapler?” Nickle questioned.

“This is child abuse,” teaser452 posted. “These people in charge of these schools are monsters. We have everyone’s nerves on edge all the time. These kids are going to have serious mental health issues later on in life, if they don’t already.”