By BRAD GASKINS / Staff Writer

NORTH SHELBY – Oak Mountain High School was briefly placed on lockdown today.

The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office swept the building with a narcotics dog, according to sheriff’s Capt. Ken Burchfield. The lockdown and search took about an hour and was conducted during sixth period.

“It was kind of a routine thing today,” Burchfield said. “There was no threat.”

It was the second time this week the school was placed on lockdown.

The first lockdown was Dec. 13 from about 1-3 p.m. “in response to a rumor that had been circulated on campus,” the sheriff’s office said in a Dec. 13 news release.

The sheriff’s office has an agreement with Shelby County Schools to perform routine searches throughout schools, Burchfield said of today’s search. Schools are locked down while the searches are performed, Burchfield said.

Located at 5476 Caldwell Mill Road, Oak Mountain is in its 13^th year of existence. In September, the U.S. Department of Education named the school a National Blue Ribbon School – one of only 304 schools in the country to be honored as such this year.