Police now say the student who received the threat that triggered a lockdown at BFA-Fairfax Tuesday made it up.

The juvenile girl told police the threat was sent to her from an anonymous account on Facebook Messenger. It threatened her and BFA-Fairfax. Police are not naming the girl but they say she created a fake account to send the threat to her real account. She was cited to appear in court for "False Alarms and Reports."

Students were sent home around noon, following a schoolwide lockdown Tuesday morning.

"A shooting at the school was mentioned and then they also referenced the Parkland, Florida, attack specifically. So, of course, we take these matters extremely seriously and this is something we obviously want to get a hold of as soon as quickly as we can. And so the decision was made to evacuate the school and that's what happened," said Deputy Nicholas Palmier of the Franklin County Sheriff's Department.

School will resume as usual Wednesday.

When we asked about the decision to send students home, police said until the threat was properly investigated, they felt it was the safest course of action. But for one young student, the journey home didn't go well. Her mom tells WCAX News a miscommunication and missed protocols left her daughter walking around town in the rain Tuesday afternoon until a friend's grandmother spotted her and picked her up.

"All of a sudden they said clear the halls," said Ava Bates, a BFA-Fairfax student.

Ava's day was cut short Tuesday when she and hundreds of other students were sent home early following a school threat. But the scariest part of her day happened after that. Her parents work out of town. And her normal day care was closed during the day but she was dropped off there anyway.

"They left and I went to the door to see if it was open. And it wouldn't," Ava said.

Her mom, Christal Bates, could hardly believe what happened.

"She was dropped off at a house where no one was there," Christal said. "And then she decided to start walking into town."

"I was kind of nervous walking along the road," Ava said. "Every time someone drove by, I would say keep going."

"Some lady picked her up off the side of the road. Thank goodness Ava knew who she was and she brought her to the store," Christal said.

Nan's store called Christal and told her Ava was there. It was a relief for the mom.

"It was just really frightening," Christal said. "On top of the lockdown situation, I didn't know where Ava was."

WCAX News spoke to the superintendent. He says the proper protocol is to bring the student back to the school if there is not an adult there to receive them. He says he's not sure why that bus driver didn't follow the procedures but he says they will be addressing it to make sure it doesn't happen again. He says Ava's case is the only one they heard of among the 900 or so students who were sent home early.

Christal says she just wants there to be a better procedure for contacting parents directly when classes are dismissed early. That way parents can tell the school where their child needs to go.

"Somebody could have gotten seriously hurt in this situation," Christal said. "I don't discredit the threat the school got but you could have put some kids in serious, serious trouble."

The superintendent said he is upset that this happened and they are in contact with the Bates family. But he also wanted to stress that the school staff and law enforcement stepped up to make sure the situation at the school was handled professionally.

And again, it is back to school as usual Wednesday for everyone at BFA-Fairfax.