HOAX: Active shooter report at Volunteer High ends as a phony threat

Parents could be seen nervously swiping their cell phones Tuesday morning after a mass of law enforcement officers swarmed the Volunteer High School campus in Church Hill, Tennessee.

Some had already spoken with their frightened children placed in locked-down rooms in the vast collection of buildings after reports of an active shooter started to spread in the Hawkins County community.

Sheriff Ronnie Lawson said the call ended up as a hoax–a call he said was made by a male suspect who told a dispatcher he was in a bathroom at the school, he had been bullied by popular students, and he was ready to walk to the gym with his gun.

Lawson said his officers and responding Church Hill policemen did not fire any shots inside the school and there were no injuries. He noted that two individuals were taken from the scene for medical emergencies unrelated to the incident.

The TBI continues to work with Hawkins County investigators to trace the call back to the cell phone and its owner.

(IMAGE: K. Castle, Bristol Broadcasting Company)