Marci Harris, Special to the Daily Herald

Students across Utah County and Utah as a whole had learning disrupted Wednesday morning as calls were made to several local police departments reporting active shooters at area high schools. Calls warning of active shooters were made to the Provo and Spanish Fork police departments at 9:45 a.m. and 9:53 a.m., respectively.

In Provo, officers reported to the school immediately, placing students in a lockdown and initiating a sweep of the school.

The sweep of the school was completed in less than one hour, allowing students to return to class, where they were to complete the rest of the day.

“The school’s doing a good job. They announced to the entire school what’s going and that it’s been cleared,” said Caleb Price, director of communications with Provo City School District. Officers were to remain onsite for the rest of the school day to speak with students and help assuage anxieties or worries, Price added.

Even as the event came to a calm resolution, students and parents were still shaken by the school day’s conclusion.

Marci Harris, Special to the Daily Herald

“We were in our classes for second period, I was in English. We had only been in class for about 10 or 15 minutes when we heard the announcement, ‘lockdown, pretend this is a drill’. My teacher said, ‘this is not a drill, it’s actually happening. We can’t open the door for anyone and we need to stay here,'” said Nicole Counter, a Provo high student. “This was my third lockdown. I’ve had a real one every year. I guess I got used to it after the first time it happened.”

Jenny Ashby came to the school to pick up her child, a freshman, after getting a notification that her other daughter’s elementary school was not in lockdown and was in contact with Provo police.

“I got that phone call (from the school) during a meeting, so I didn’t answer it. So later I checked my voicemail and was worried, but by then it was done, and I had Googled it to make sure,” Ashby said. “Even though nothing really happened here, it’s still a little upsetting considering that there was just a shooting earlier this week in Tennessee.”

In Spanish Fork, a person called the city’s police department, saying an 18-year-old student had multiple handguns and had already fired the weapons, according to Nick Porter, Spanish Fork spokesperson. At least 11 agencies responded to the call including Spanish Fork police and fire, Mapleton and Salem officers, FBI and SWAT.

Officers onsite cleared the threat. Students were then evacuated to the football field for attendance checks and brought back to class before 11 a.m. Students were allowed to leave early.

Sarah Hunt, Daily Herald

Spanish Fork High School was the only facility in the district subject to the hoax call, according to Lana Hiskey, communications and community relations administrator for Nebo School District. Precautionary lockdowns were put in place for most other Nebo schools.

“We had some pretty emotional parents and students today. Parents should watch their children when they get home today, and if they feel like they need any kind of counseling or help, we will have that available at our schools,” Hiskey said. “Hundreds of police, fire, SWAT and FBI members showed up. It was truly impressive to see how fast they responded. We sincerely appreciate all the efforts of our local police and all of the agencies that came to help, they did an excellent job.”

Local law enforcement agencies will investigate the origins of the call.

False reports of violence also were made to schools in Salt Lake, Weber and Box Elder counties, according to various law enforcement and education agencies, though none were found to be credible. Other states, such as Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, have seen similar hoaxes in recent days, per national media reports.

The fake calls come two days after six people — three adults and three children — were killed at an elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee.

Marci Harris, Special to the Daily Herald

Daily Herald reporter Sarah Hunt contributed to this story.