Hollywood Hills High School was placed on lockdown Tuesday morning due to a bomb threat and resulting police investigation before it was given the all clear, officials said.
According to Superintendent Howard Hepburn, someone called in a bomb threat to Hollywood police, which in turn alerted the school, located in the area of N. 56th Avenue and Stirling Road.
“Immediately we went into lockdown,” Hepburn said.
School police brought in their K9 to search the campus and the dog “was alerted to something,” the superintendent said, which escalated the situation and prompted a secondary search.
He did not describe what may have caused the K9 to alert.
“We’ve since evacuated all students outside of the building,” Hepburn said.
Students were moved to the athletic fields while authorities searched the buildings, and the public was asked to avoid the area.
Footage showed a massive police presence in the area near the school as some parents gathered outside.
School officials said that all students and staff are safe, and that those who usually take the bus will be transported as normal. Students picked up by their parents were also to be picked up as usual.
The school received an all clear just before 1 p.m. and proceeded with an early release for students, the district said.
The superintendent said that bomb threats are “not a prank.”
“If you make a call like this, the disruption, the concern that’s widespread throughout faculty and staff and parents—we prosecute to the fullest extent of the law,” he said.