Frightening Bomb Scare At High School Turns Out To Be A Senior Prank Gone Wrong

As the school year is winding down, and summer break is just around the corner, students are getting a bit antsy amidst their final exams and upcoming graduations. It seems that a couple of senior students in North Carolina decided to go out with a bang by pulling a prank, leading officials to believe there was a bomb threat at South Iredell High School.

Two 18-year-old students, Shannon Farrell and Lakia Hall, thought it would be funny to bring alarm clocks to school, stuff them inside unused lockers, and set them to go off every few minutes.

Troutman Police told WSOC-TV that they received a call around 10:30 a.m. regarding a suspicious device found inside one of the lockers. A staff member heard the alarm going off, and noticed that the abandoned lockers had been tampered with and immediately called authorities.

This also prompted an evacuation of the nearly 1,500 students and 200 faculty members at South Iredell High School at 10:45 a.m.

Chief Matthew Selves of the Troutman Police told WBTV, “It raised suspicion because number one the alarm was going off inside, one of the administrators or staff members heard it and contacted admin and contacted us. These are lockers that are not used by students, they actually have zip ties on them and there was a lock on one of these lockers, one of the zip ties had been cut and a lock had been put on it, a key lock type thing.”

As it turns out, Shannon Farrell’s dad, Dan Farrell, knew about the entire prank before it ever happened. He revealed to WBTV, “It started out as a senior prank. My daughter was involved in it and told me about it, she was going to do a senior prank, take alarm clocks and put them in all these unused lockers and put, set them to go off every couple minutes, with zip ties, and apparently they thought it was a bomb, so now it’s out of control.”

Police brought in bomb-sniffing dogs to help with the investigation.

“We’ve got to take this very seriously,” Chief Selves stated to WSOC-TV. “Even though it was a hoax we had to get all the resources, lock the school down, get the students out to the football field safe and sound,” Selves continued.

Dan Farrell believes it was a funny prank that went all wrong and got completely out of hand, as he admits to WBTV.

“The more I think about it I guess it was kind of silly, today’s world. I didn’t think anything of it when she told me, I thought it was kind of funny, you know, have one go off every couple minutes something happen, teachers running everywhere to get them, but I guess the more I think about it now I guess it was kind of silly in today’s world with all the bomb threats and everything, never thought about it that way.”

Both senior students Shannon Farrell and Lakia Hall are in police custody and charged with the felony of hoax by false bomb in a public building.

Do you think the punishment is too harsh for what Dan Farrell considers his daughter and her friend pulling of a harmless prank?

[Photo Credit: WSOCTV.com, WBTV.com]