Photo: CBS 12
An "unfounded" report of an active shooter resulted in the apparent evacuation of a school in Wellington.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office responded to the Renaissance Charter School on U.S. 441 around 9:30 a.m. Thursday after receiving the call. Authorities conducted a thorough search of the campus, but found no evidence of a shooter.
Parents were told they could pick up their children at a park nearby and video from a TV news crew showed students filing out of the school with a majority of them getting onto school buses.
Dozens of police vehicles were surrounding the school and the Sheriff's Office helicopter was searching the area.
A spokesperson for Renaissance says the school was put on a Code Red lockdown out of an abundance of caution, but there was no apparent immediate danger to students.
The principal sent a letter to parents that read deputies were conducting a backpack search that was expected to take "a very long time." The letter said that PBSO advised them to send students home for the rest of the day while all backpacks and personal belongings were left on campus to be searched throughout the afternoon.