Colo. school searched after report of armed man

Police searched a high school in the northern Denver suburbs Friday after a report of a man with a rifle outside the school.

No injuries were reported and there were no reports of gunfire at Thornton High School.

Students left the school in single file, holding hands and led by police. They boarded school buses, and an officer was posted in each bus.

Authorities planned to bus the students to a nearby bus park-and-ride lot and told parents to meet their children there.

The school has 2,000 students and 130 staff members.

"I'm freaking out," said Michelle Copeland, who was outside the school awaiting word on her 16-year-old son, Timothy Romero, a sophomore. "My knees are shaking. What if it's an automatic gun? Any gun, it doesn't matter."

She said Timothy texted her from gym class saying the school was on lockdown and heavily armed police were inside.

Thornton High student Ezequiel Cordova said he left the building at the order of police as an automated message came over the public address system announcing a security problem.

Niejha Andersen, 14, said her 16-year-old sister Toni texted her from inside the school shortly before noon that she was hiding under her desk. Toni is a junior at the school while Niejha is home-schooled.

Police cars surrounded the school and armed officers were visible.

The incident rattled Thornton, a city of 122,000 just 20 miles north of Columbine High School in the southwest Denver suburbs. Law enforcement was criticized for not moving quickly enough in after a 1999 attack there in which two teenagers killed 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves.

After Columbine, police across the country developed tactics that call for responding officers to aggressively rush into schools or other scenes to stop any suspected gunman.

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Associated Press writer Steven K. Paulson contributed to this report from Denver.