Schools in Escalon were on lockdown for a brief time both Wednesday, March 6 and Thursday, March 7 this past week, with police investigating a series of reported threats.

Information regarding the various threats – to the high school and a couple of businesses in the area – was relayed to Escalon Police via the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Department. The first was late Wednesday afternoon but was lifted fairly quickly.

On Thursday, Escalon Police Chief Gustavo Flores said Escalon High School, El Portal Middle School and Dent Elementary were all impacted.

“They were locked down for approximately an hour,” the chief said of Thursday’s incident.

Police were actively investigating; Flores said it was determined that the threats, both at the schools and businesses, were a hoax and they were following leads in hopes of identifying the person or persons responsible.