Rumors that a shooting was going to take place at Union Pines High School this morning caused the school system to take precautionary measures.

"Anytime a rumor comes up, we're going to take it seriously," said Tim Lussier, spokesman for Moore County Schools. "The safety of the students is first and foremost. We are checking the rumors out thoroughly."

Lussier said that school officials started getting calls from concerned parents this morning that text messages had been going around indicating that "there was some sort of threat" to students at the school. Callers to The Pilot indicated that the threat was that a shooting was going to take place.

He said no school officials had seen any of the text messages, and that nothing had been confirmed by 10:15 a.m.

The school day was continuing as scheduled, Lussier said, but security had been increased at the school. Members of the school system's special police are investigating the rumor in an effort to determine where it originated.