BLOOMFIELD HILLS (WWJ) - A written message deemed a security threat led to an early dismissal Thursday morning at Oakland County's Cranbrook Schools.
Two parents called the WWJ Newsradio 950 newsroom at around 9 a.m. saying they'd received alerts from the school district that security had instituted a "shelter in place" order on the Bloomfield Hills campus.
According to Bloomfield Hills police, officers responded to the school after a "concerning message" written on a white board was found by a faculty member at Cranbrook, a private PK–12 college-preparatory school.
School officials said "a troubling, hand-drawn and hand-written image on a whiteboard in one of the campus teaching spaces" caused the concern.
"The image was concerning, and that's gonna be part of our investigation," Bloomfield Police Captain Dustin Lockhart told WWJ's Jon Hewett and other reporters. "I couldn't tell you whether there's, you know, anything behind it at this point. But anything beyond that was out of an abundance of caution."
Police said the building went into "secure mode" as a precaution, and that the building was secured before 10 a.m.
Despite rumors that an unidentified intruder had been spotted on campus, police did not find any suspicious people at the school. Bloomfield Hills Police said earlier information attributed to police that the situation also involved "suspicious packages" at the school was erroneous.
"At no time was there an active threat, an aggressor on campus, a suspicious person, a suspicious package or anything like that," Lockhart said.
The tipsters said parents were told not to call their students or the school during the shelter in place, but many headed up to the school despite those instructions.
After the campus was secured by police, students and staff were dismissed for the day shortly after 10:30 a.m.
Police remained on campus into the afternoon.
No additional information has been released about what the message contained, or who may have been responsible for writing it, as the investigation continues.
WWJ Newsradio 950 will have the latest updates as this story develops >>LISTEN LIVE!
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