It's been more than 24 hours since a gunman tried to enter Romulus Middle School.

Although he never gained access to the building and police arrested him quickly, some parents were upset about how the incident was communicated to them by the school district.

Some parents, like Nathaniel Ramirez, didn't hear about the incident until much later.

"You have to overly communicate that there's no way, there's no such thing as overly communicate when something serious is this is happening," Ramirez said.

Sanora Turner says her son, who was on lockdown inside the building, messaged her.

"Then my niece called me. She go to school in Detroit, and she asked me what was going on in his school. And I'm like, 'What you mean?' She was like, 'It's all over social media,'" Turner said.

Benjamin Edmondson, the school district superintendent, says parents typically get alerts by text, email, or phone call.

"I had written this email. I got it done in five minutes, sent it out, didn't go out," Edmondson said. "I'm still going about my business and I ask people, 'Hey, did it go through?' "No, it didn't.' Then I jump on the phone."

While some parents did receive the alert quickly, others didn't. When asked if there was a cell tower issue in that area that could cause a delay, city officials say they did not receive notification of anything down.

"I can't speak on private industry as to whether or not there was an outage for other carriers. I just know the ones that we rely on for emergency services weren't down," said Kevin Krause, director of Community Safety & Development for the City of Romulus.

Krause says the issue has less to do with cell towers and more to do with the building construction.

"Because school buildings are Class A construction made out of block, brick, cement and steel, that they experience what we call dead spots within the buildings. And those dead spots sometimes can inhibit a cellphone from working or connecting to the towers, and interference and dead spots," Krause said.

School and city officials promise they are working together to make the process more efficient and effective in the future.

The man taken into custody was identified as 44 years old. Police did not release any additional details on the suspect.

The Michigan school safety tipline program is known as OK2SAY. The program began 10 years ago and provides steps that anyone can use, 24/7, to report potential harmful or criminal activities involving students or a school campus.