J.P. Taravella High Code Red Turned Out To Be False Alarm

FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) - There was high anxiety in the classrooms of J.P. Taravella High on Thursday morning as heavily armed Coral Springs police officers told everyone to sit tight during a Code Red lockdown as they searched for what was believed to have been a suspicious person on campus.

The school is just miles away from Stoneman Douglas High school where 17 students and staff died in a mass Shooting February 14, 2018

"I was scared. We didn't know if we were next," said student Jeanna LaFrance,

Jackie Morjon, whose daughter is a tenth grader at the school, said she received a call from the school and emails from her daughter about who the police were looking for.

"We were told it was a former student on campus that was not supposed to be there and that they did find a backpack but it was empty," she said.

As word of the Code Red spread, some parents rushed to the school and grilled police officers for answers.

"He told me they were looking for a student with a backpack who graduated two years ago and wasn't supposed to be here, they are hunting for him," parent Roger Krahl.

Krahl said he was frustrated that the police didn't move into the school more quickly.

"They have Code Reds every week, it stresses the students out. Let's get in there," he said.

Coral Springs police say lockdown was initiated around 7:30 a.m. after a student notified a security monitor that she saw a former student on campus carrying a large-bag. The security monitor contacted the police.

Arriving officers made entry into the school to begin clearing and investigating the reported incident.

Officers cleared the entire campus, while other police personnel reviewed surveillance video. It was established that the reported suspicious person was an actual student who resembled a former student.

Just before 10 a.m. the lockdown was lifted and classes resumed as normal. The school was only scheduled for a half day, so the students were released at noon.