EUCLID, Ohio (WJW) – Euclid City Schools Superintendent Christopher Papouras is applauding the student body for helping to keep a bad situation from getting worse Friday afternoon.

“Mid-afternoon, students started to tell our high school administration team that they had concerns about threats they were hearing about a retaliation for something that happened in school,” said Papouras.

Papouras said teachers investigated the potential threat and notified police. However, they were unable to substantiate any of the rumors.

“We dismissed around 2:15 p.m., our police had a presence around the area. They notified us that something was happening near the high school, so at that point, we went into lockdown,” said Papouras.

Papouras said 15 minutes later, the high school was cleared and students were released for dismissal.

That’s when school resource officers noticed several individuals that had trespassed onto campus.

“These individuals tried to run, police pursued them near the high school and were able to detain them,” said Papouras.

School security then used pepper spray to break up the unruly crowd of students gathered in the dismissal area.

This incident comes less than a week after the FOX 8 I-Team reported Euclid police were called to several large fights at the high school after a football game.

“We’ve preached to our kids that if you see something, say something. This is an example of where our kids were uncomfortable so they did tell someone and that made all the difference today,” said Papouras.