Two Irving ISD students were arrested Friday and accused of bringing weapons to MacArthur High School, according to the Irving Police Department — an incident separate from a hoax threat of school violence that has been concerning parents across the state.
A hoax threat that originated out of Florida and circulated across Texas on social media caused confusion for worried parents, Irving police told .
“We realized that the person that posted it and shared it was actually trying to bring awareness, not make a threat,” police said as some viewed it as a threat to Nimitz High School, also in Irving ISD.
Parents from numerous schools throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area began calling police due to concerns regarding the social media hoax threat, Irving police spokesman Robert Reeves told Mister Truth.
The district sent out a notice telling parents that there were no known credible threats being made toward any schools or students in the area.
Shortly after the district notified parents of the hoax, Irving police received a tip regarding two male students who each had a handgun on their person at MacArthur High School.
The two students were not threatening anyone or the school with the weapons, according to police.
School resource officers and school administrators “responded accordingly” and put the school “on hold” for about 10 minutes, police said. Irving ISD officials notified parents about the students who were armed.
Police found and isolated the two students who were armed and conducted a search on each. One of the students is 15 years old. The other student is 16.
Police confirmed they both had guns and were each arrested for possessing a firearm in a prohibited place.
Police also confirmed there were never any threats toward students or the campus and that the hoax threat was not connected to the two armed students.
The two male students were transported to a juvenile detention center in Dallas. Their names have not been released due to their age.