SOUTH CENTRE TWP. — An Instagram post featuring a male with a gun threatening a school named “CHS” put Central Columbia school officials and police on high alert this morning.

Students arriving at the high school just after 7 a.m. were quickly shuttled to the middle school while South Centre Township police, along with State Police, began tracking the photo’s origins, according to superintendent Harry Mathias.

The scare began when a student sent a screen shot of the post to high school principal Jeff Groshek around 6:45 a.m. Groshek alerted Mathias, who immediately called police. Since the school opens at 7:15 for the start of classes at 7:45, bus drivers were already out on their routes, he said. So he made the decision to send all the incoming students to the middle school “to get them out of the threat zone.”

They questioned the student who sent Groshek the post, which led them to several other students who had been circulating the photo. 

“When it was all said and done, it turned out to be a social media post made in New Mexico,” Mathias explained. “It got copied here by some students and was not a credible threat at all.”

The initial threat was from an Instagram post, showing a screen shot of a Snapchat, targeting the Clovis High School in New Mexico last week, said Police Chief Bill Richendrfer. The photo shows a male holding a weapon with “F--- CHS I’m going out with a bang” in a caption across the bottom.

It was similar to a scare that circulated on Facebook in February, shortly after the high school shooting in Parkland, Florida. That post said a shooter was threatening “BMS.” Both Bloomsburg and Berwick had police patrol the schools after the post appeared locally.

So when police saw the Instagram post, they were skeptical. It seemed almost identical to the BMS hoax, and the initials didn’t match — Central actually goes by CCHS.

“We had an idea it didn’t involve our school but we don’t take anything lightly,” Richendrfer said. 

By 9 a.m., students were back in the high school and classes had resumed, Mathias said. 

Although the students who shared the post didn’t appear to do it maliciously, both Richendrfer and Mathias are concerned it took so long to be brought to officials' attention.

“It was bouncing around yesterday afternoon and last evening,” Mathias said. “So we’re going to have some conversations about the right way to handle this.”

Richendrfer said police are still investigating the students who shared the post and haven’t decided if anyone will be charged in the incident.