Houston, Nov 18 (TIWN) Three students were in custody after making emergency calls about a fake active shooter at a high school near Houston, the largest city in the US state of Texas, authorities said.

When Jefferson High School on the west side of San Antonio went on lockdown in response to a reported shooting on campus, parents rushed to the school to collect their children. The scene dissolved as parents and police shouted over each other, with families frantically trying to locate their loved ones as police worked to sweep the campus.

Though the threat was unfounded, the chaos revealed the anxiety Texas families have lived with since the new school year began in August, with the memory of the Uvalde shooting on May 24 still fresh in the minds of Texans.

The botched law enforcement response to the deadliest school shooting in Texas’ history has raised concerns about school safety and brought increased scrutiny to how police respond to active-shooter threats. The scene outside Jefferson was a reminder of the tension between law enforcement’s need to respond to an active-shooting threat while effectively communicating with stressed parents.