Rumors of a Mountain Brook High School student arrested with a gun and ammunition on campus Thursday are just that, according to the city's police chief.
The misunderstanding apparently all began with a fire drill, said Police Chief Ted Cook. A conversation between two students was misunderstood and then quickly got out of control. "It spread from there as rumors do,'' Cook said.
The information was quickly investigated by school officials and Mountain Brook police school resource officers. "We determined it was not an actual threat made,'' Cook said.
As a precaution, police did a sweep and found no gun or any other weapon.
The student whose statement was misunderstood did nothing wrong and is not in trouble. "There is no disciplinary action being taken,'' Cook said. "It was all one big misunderstanding."
Here is Cook's full statement: "
"Rumor and misunderstanding has come to Mountain Brook, much as it has to numerous communities across the Country after recent tragic events. Know this first; No Student has been in danger in our MB City schools today. No student has been arrested at MB City schools today. No gun has been found at any MB School today. No "threat" was made at MB City schools today.
High School officials and the MBPD SRO were made aware of a possible threat made during a scheduled fire drill at the High School today. School Officials and the SRO immediately began gathering information and following our established protocols for Student/Faculty safety. Parties involved in a conversation were gathered and interviewed. No threat was determined to have been made. The statement that lead to the misunderstanding was something to the effect of, "What if this is just someone getting us together to pop us like in Florida."
Somehow that statement evolved to: MBPD having arrested a student with a gun at the High School. That simply did not happen!"