The number of parents lining the street and parking lot leading to Warren Central Junior High School increased quickly throughout the afternoon Wednesday as word of a bomb threat and evacuation at the school spread.

A device was discovered before 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, leading to a full school evacuation and the students being moved to Vicksburg Junior High School’s auditorium. For the next four hours, authorities worked to remove and dismantle the device and cleared any risk.

Students were allowed to go home after 4:30 p.m. after local, state and federal authorities cleared the school and eliminated the threat.

Danielle Chin was on break at work when she saw posts online about the situation at the school. She was able to get in contact with her daughter by calling her cell phone. Speaking with her daughter is when she learned about the bomb found in another student’s book bag and that the students had been evacuated to Vicksburg Junior High.

She felt her daughter was safe, but she was ready to take her home.

“I want to make sure my child’s safe,” Chin said looking at the school. “Even through I talked to her, I know she alright, but you ain’t going to be comfortable in a safe environment knowing your child’s not.”

Chin did have concerns the bomb at Warren Central could be a decoy.

“You think you’re running them to safety and you may be running them to more danger,” Chin said.

Naeasea Jones said Chin’s theory was plausible, and she was mainly concerned with finding out how long her son was going to be held in the school and when the officers would finally release all the students.

“That’s why I want to get my son,” Jones said. “I’ll feel safer if he’s with me.”

Jones heard the news while she was at work and her cousin called to let her know. Once she confirmed the story was true, she left work to get to the school thinking she would be able to take her child home. Her nerves were too bad to stay at work, and she had not been in contact with her son.

“Today was the day I told my son to leave his cell phone at home,” Jones said.

Rumors swirled through the crowd about what was found in the school and what kind of danger their children were facing. Parents were left with little information and did not know when their children would be released from the school.

Robert Kapp was frustrated he hadn’t gotten any word about when he could pick up his child so he joined the crowd of parents waiting. He never thought anything like this would happen in a small town like Vicksburg.

“I’ve been overseas three times, and I never thought I’d see this over here in the place I went to junior high,” Kapp said.

Many parents were overheard saying they would not be sending their child to school Thursday.

“We’re hoping this is a wake up call for the school system,” Chin said adding more money needs to be invested into safety and security systems.