North Atlanta High School explosives, shooting threat under investigation

ATLANTA - An email threatening to blow up an Atlanta Public School kicked security into high gear.

The threat came in over the weekend and claimed there would be explosives and a shooting Monday morning at North Atlanta High School.

The APS Police Chief told FOX 5 the emails were sent to about 12 teachers.

"I was just, like, nervous," student Mia Walker said.

 "My mom told me about it. I guess the school sent out an e-mail," student Lane Whitfield said.

North Atlanta High School

Students at North Atlanta High reacted to what many school districts are forced to deal with in this climate.

The APS Chief Ronald Applin said he would not take any chances. He immediately canceled off-days and activated his team over the weekend to search the school and start investigating.

"We, of course, had cameras monitoring the school. We had officers dropping in looking for anything suspicious," Chief Applin said. "A canine was over there this morning. We paid a lot of attention to North Atlanta High School over the weekend."

North Atlanta High School

SKYFOX 5 saw additional security on the sprawling campus Monday.

The chief didn't want to talk about specifics, but said the email mentioned a prominent national politician and threatened violence with both explosives and a shooting.

"It spun up a lot of people. I had to pull some people out of things that they were doing over the weekend," Applin said. "It was purely a threat to cause harm to people at North Atlanta High School."

Unlike many threats, this one did not involve social media.

North Atlanta High School

Students said they appreciated the extra security and felt safe in this new normal.

'We have metal detectors, so hopefully they catch everybody that comes in," senior Ava Baradl said. 

" I feel safe right now. I think North Atlanta does a good job with bag checks, and we have officers on campus," Lane Whitfield said.

Homeland Security and IT officers were also put on this case. Chief Applin said they would do all they can to find out who was behind the threat.