Austin High School Student Charged With A Felony After Lying About A Man With A Gun On Campus

What happens when you call in a fake report of someone with a gun at a school? Well, one Austin High School student is finding out the hard way that you get arrested and charged with making a false police report. Oh, and by the way, that is a felony.

The report of a man with a gun was called in around 8:15 Thursday morning and the campus was locked down. Of course, being the age of the internet, reports of the lockdown began surfacing almost immediately. That led to more Facebook and Twitter postings and more than a few terrified parents. We even took phone calls at the KISS studio from parents who were wondering if the situation was real.

It wasn't.

What we didn't know at the time was a 17 year old student made the story up about a student who had recently dropped out. The EPISD police chief said there have been ongoing issues with a group of students, including the student who made the story up. There is video of the student who made the false report and the alleged suspect on campus, but it wasn’t released to the media.

The alleged suspect was on the Austin High campus, but went there with another Austin student. He will be issued a criminal trespass warning and told he is not allowed on campus. EPISD police say the student was able to blend in during a busy time of the day and that is how he got onto campus. Visitors on EPISD school are supposed to go to the front office and get their ID swiped before they are allowed to move about the campus.

EPISD police say they take reports of a gun on campus seriously and that is why they are bringing criminal charges against the student who made the false report.

There are so many things that could have gone wrong in this scenario. Parents could have gotten hurt in traffic rushing to the scene, someone could have had a medical emergency because of the stress, or heaven forbid, someone could have shown up with a weapon to try and take the suspect out. Hopefully the students involved in this incident will think twice about pulling another stunt like this one.