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© Statesville Record & LandmarkShannon Marie Farrell, 18, is led from the Troutman Police Department by Sgt. Corey Richard as she was taken to jail Tuesday morning.
Two South Iredell High School seniors each face a felony charge after a senior prank led to the evacuation of the school Tuesday morning.

Shannon Marie Farrell, 18, of Troutman, and Lekia Hall, 18, of Statesville, were charged with perpetrating a hoax by use of false bomb or other device in a public building, said Troutman Police Chief Matthew Selves.

Farrell's father, Dan, said his daughter and a few other seniors planned the prank, which involved bringing alarm clocks to school, setting them to go off at different times and placing them in unused lockers.

Selves said it was those unused lockers and the way they were secured that sounded the alarm Tuesday morning. He said School Resource Officer Kerry Baker called for assistance after finding one of the lockers, which had been zip-tied by staff members, secured with a lock instead. "They cut the zip ties and put their own lock on the locker," Selves said.

The locks, along with the sounds of ticking coming from inside the lockers, raised suspicions and prompted a mass response by law enforcement and emergency personnel.

Dan Farrell, speaking near the school, said he received a call from his younger daughter Tuesday morning. He said she told him her sister was being questioned and the school had been evacuated.

He said he heard about the plans to bring alarm clocks to school several days ago. "I thought it was a pretty funny thing," Farrell said.

Selves said law enforcement was not amused. Because the ties on the locker had been disturbed and replaced with a lock and the ticking sounds, the situation was taken seriously. He said the subsequent investigation revealed the plans to pull the prank were spread via social media or email in the past few days, but no one alerted officials.

When it was noticed that the zip tie was removed from the locker, Baker called for assistance and the faculty and staff helped evacuate the students to the football stadium.

Selves said the evacuation involved approximately 1,500 students and another 200 or so faculty and staff members.

While the students and faculty waited in the football stadium, law enforcement officers from Troutman, the Iredell County Sheriff's Office and the N.C. Highway Patrol swarmed the area. The Troutman Fire Department and Iredell EMS also responded to the school.

Selves said a lot of resources were tied up for about two hours until a bomb-sniffing dog made a sweep through the school and word of the planned prank began to make its way to investigators.

He said the whole situation could have been avoided if any of those who knew of the planned prank had alerted an official ahead of time.

Selves said he was pleased with response to the incident and expressed appreciation to the responders for their assistance.