OKEMOS, Mich. (WLNS) – Parents are hugging their children a little bit tighter Tuesday night after a shooting hoax took place at Okemos High School.

Students were evacuated a little after 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, where they were then shuttled to ‘2 42 Community Church’ on Bennett Rd. where parents could reunite with their kids.

Parents and guardians waited in lines that reached into the parking lot, while cars were backed up both ways on Bennett Rd.

Some parents Tuesday said their hearts immediately sank when they got that first notification.

“When I heard something happened here in the school, I thought about my son,” Parent Carlos Ortiz said. “I started crying because I didn’t know what would happen.”

He added that he didn’t know the status of his son until he was able to sign him out 3 hours after the school’s evacuation.

“I got a call from my daughter and she said ‘Dad, everything should be okay and we can meet at 9 o’clock.’ It’s 12:30 right now, and this is the first that I knew anything about my son,” Ortiz said.

Other parents had similar starts to the day.

“I spent a lot of the morning trying to get a hold of my son, he wasn’t answering his texts so I was really concerned,” Eric Christensen said.

Christensen was in contact with his daughter, who then passed along the good news.

“After a while, I did get a message that my daughter did find my son, so it was a relief to know that he was okay,”  Eric Christensen said.

Not to mention how the students felt.

“My head was racing, I didn’t know if someone actually got shot or not. It was just a really scary experience I would say,” Student Landen Christensen said.

However, tonight parents and kids are resting a little easier and they’re hoping officials get to the bottom of what caused the commotion.

“I’m just glad it was a hoax and not real, and I hope they find whoever did this and make them pay the price for lying like that,” Eric Christensen added.

Classes at Okemos Schools are canceled for tomorrow, and the district said it will be providing mental health support for students, families, and staff.