UPDATE: N.Y. College Active Shooter Robocall Causes RI School to Go into Lockdown

Update: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the active shooter robocall originated in Texas. It actually originated from Hamilton College in New York.

Hearts raced for parents of children at Western Coventry Elementary School on Friday after they got a robocall informing them that the school entered a lockdown position for a brief time during the school day.

No children were ever in any danger and the lockdown was triggered after a chain of events that apparently began when parents of students at Hamilton College in New York themselves got a robocall informing them of an active shooter.

In the second of two early afternoon emails to parents, Amy Anzalone, principal at Western Coventry Elementary School, said that a teacher at the school had used the school’s number as an emergency contact number for Hamilton College.

As a result, the school got the robocall from the New York college, which stated there was an “active shooter on campus and to go to a lockdown position,” Anzalone said.

The e-mail came a short time after Anzalone first emailed parents saying that the school had received the call and went into a lockdown position.

“We immediately initatied our district security procedures and our students were secured,” Anzalone wrote. “Police are present on the Western property but we have no reason to believe there are any safety concerns.”

Despite the tense moments, the school day went on as normally as possible and Anzalone visited every classroom to reassure the children that everything was fine.

Parents were asked not to pick up children early “as this may heighten their anxiety.”

The incident comes on the same day that parents in East Providence learned of social media threats posted online that turned out to be unfounded.

Even though no child was in real danger in either case, parents can’t help but feel ill at ease when the phone rings or an email arrives indicating their child had to “go to a lockdown position.”

The incident also occured on the same day as two college shootings across the country, including one in Texas involving two people were shot at a student housing complex at around 11:30 a.m., according to reports.

That shooting followed an earlier campus shooting at Northern Arizona University after a fight broke out between two groups of students.

Coventry police said in a Friday news release that Hamilton College had a report of an armed gunman on their campus and in fact initiated their rapid notify procedures, though “it is our understanding that there was no active shooter on their campus,” police said.