GREENSBORO, N.C. — Hearing your child's school is under lockdown will make any parent's heart sink.
Not knowing what could be happening or whether your child is safe.
Those feelings are fresh on the minds of many parents tonight after four schools went into lockdown this morning.
During an eerie call to 911, an unidentified caller shared with emergency dispatchers that multiple people had been shot.
"There is an active shooter at Williams High School, 5 students have been shot, the suspected shooter (inaudible) wearing a red shirt and black pants," said the caller.
That that 911 call that led to a lockdown at Williams High School in Burlington.
Police later determined the calls were a hoax, but not before causing a chaotic scene inside and outside several schools.
"It's always something that's going to make you scared to go anywhere and then when you hear it's your child, It just makes you upset," said Ane Pierce, a Williams High School Parent.
Imagine what it must've been like for kids in those schools.
"I was calling my parents," Williams High School freshman, Scarlette Pierce expressed. "I was having a panic attack because I have bad anxiety. So, she just told me to stay calm, if anything happens put yourself in a corner [and] lay down on the floor. You'll be OK."
"You never think it's going to be you or your school until you really hear gunshots going off. You don't really react to it. You're still panicked and worried," Johnathan Ortiz, Wilkes Central High School Junior said.
School leaders at Wilkes Central commended staff and law enforcement for seamlessly putting plans in motion to keep everyone safe.
"You have that down your mind is this real, but we went through the scenarios not quite to this extreme but first is, you have to act. And that's the thing I give kudos to our law enforcement. There was no hesitation whatsoever of them arriving and taking charge of the scene," Westley Wood, Assistant Superintendent at Wilkes County Schools said.
"As a parent lockdown fatigue just means you are sort of deadened to getting these repeated lockdown notifications, you hear about them after school, Sallie Grubb a Grimsley High School parent expressed.
Grubb has three students in Guilford County Schools where there was also a fake 911 call.
She said the frequency of emergencies has made her numb to the flood of emotions brought on by a lockdown notification.
"The first few are alarming. Now, after a while, I have a child in high school a child in middle school a child in elementary school, I've grown accustomed to them, and I think that's a little bit sad that I would feel that way," Grubb added.
Grubb said each morning when her kids go to school, she trusts teachers and administration to protect her children if and when these incidents find themselves a little too close to home.
"I don't think that we can live in a bubble and shelter our kids from what's going on out there. I think talking to them is obviously important, yes, that does start at home, but I feel like the school supports that home," Grubb continued.
All of these incidents were deemed a hoax by school leaders. There were additional law enforcement officers at each school today. For some, that will continue over the next few days.