York City School District responds to threat to shoot up school

The York City School District put its safety and security protocols into place at William Penn Senior High School after students received a message on social media threatening a shooting Friday afternoon.

The message students received, in part, said, "I'm shooting the school up at 1:45."

The district described the message as "general," and district communications coordinator ShaiQuana Mitchell said that William Penn was not specifically targeted in the threat.

Nonetheless, the district increased security and York City police were dispatched to secure the area around the high school.

In a statement posted on the district's website and its Facebook page, the district said, "At no point in time was a threat directed to William Penn Senior High School. All of our safety security protocols are in place. The building is secure, students and staff are safe. Students will be dismissed at their regular time."

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Other schools in the vicinity of William Penn - including charter schools such as Logos Academy and York Academy - were also placed on lockdown as part of the security procedures, Mitchell said. 

By 2:20 p.m., the lockdown had been lifted, she said.

Mitchell said parents were notified of the threat.