The emergency lockdown of Bainbridge High School at lunchtime Wednesday was prompted by a 911 phone call that came from inside the school where an anonymous caller claimed a student had a gun and had just walked into the cafeteria, said Bainbridge Island Police Chief Matthew Hamner.

A dozen or so units from Bainbridge, Poulsbo and Kitsap County quickly converged on BHS as students were warned over the school’s intercom that it was not a drill.

No one was injured and no gun was found after a roughly 30-minute sweep of the sprawling school campus by multiple police officers in tactical gear, some carrying assault rifles at the ready.

Hamner said police immediately realized the potential seriousness of the situation, given from where the 911 call was made.

“We had a phone call that said there was a student with a gun going into the cafeteria. Littleton, Colorado all over again,” Hamner said, referring to the mass shooting at Columbine High School where two teens killed 12 fellow students and a teacher in April 1999.

“We pinged the phone. Guess where the phone comes back? Right here at the high school,” Hamner said. “So that makes us think; this isn’t a call from Arizona saying, ‘Bainbridge High School, there’s a shooter.’ The phone is here. Whoever was on that phone is here at the school.”

“That’s why we reacted the way we did. We don’t want to overreact, but I think we would be derelict if we just said, ‘Oh, we don’t think it’s dangerous’ and we’re going to walk away. Then kid opens up with a gun.

“Ensuring the safety of the kids is a primary responsibility,” Hamner said.

Police officers raced to the school on High School Road after the call, which came in at about 11:40 a.m. A small group of parents and other students gathered across the street from the high school, and tried to contact friends and loved ones inside the school as the lockdown continued.

Police cars filled one end of the school’s front parking lot. Officers were stationed near entryways into the school’s dispersed buildings to stop people from entering.

Officers checked the buildings, looked for injured students and found no signs of distress.

Hamner said police and school officials have trained in the past to be ready for any reports of weapons at the high school.

“We’ve already practiced with the schools of doing lockdowns; how to do it, and what they should do. We’ve done walk-throughs and everything,” he said.

Dalina Gordon, an 11th-grader at BHS, was in her fourth period history class when the announcement came over the intercom that warned students to stay in their classrooms.

“I was like, a little scared. I was kind of wondering what was going on,” Gordon said. “People around me were crying.”

Not many students were in her classroom because of the start of lunch, she said.

“We stayed in the classroom, we covered the windows and all that,” Gordon said.

Anton Easterbrook, a senior at BHS, said he was with a bunch of other students when the scare began.

“We were in the commons and they just went over the intercom, ‘Go to your closest classroom,’” Easterbrook said.

“The teachers definitely seemed like pretty panicked,” said BHS junior Armen Tooloee. “I heard Mr. Lovelace, the geometry teacher, yelling, ‘Get to a room now.’ Everyone was like, ‘Oh, this is pretty serious.’”

“They were pretty concerned,” he added. “I was in one of the classrooms, and the teacher said like, ‘Make sure you stay away from the windows, stay low to the ground.’”

After the all-clear was given, students were given the OK to leave their buildings and return to lunch.

Some gathered in small groups to talk about the lockdown.

“I’d rather be emotionally scarred than dead,” one girl told her friends.

Others were met outside the school by their parents – Hamner included. His daughters found him on the sidewalk in front of BHS talking with other officers and gave him a hug; they tried to text him with no success.

Rumors ran rampant, including that a gun had been found and a student was detained.

The incident also prompted a large number of calls into CENCOM, the county’s 911 dispatch center, from worried parents on Bainbridge.

“CENCOM’s just being beat up,” Hamner said.

The all-clear was given at 12:10 p.m.

Hamner said the phone call remains under investigation.

Review reporter Luciano Marano contributed to this story.