Oakland University Mistakenly Alerts Students To 'Shooter On Campus'

DETROIT (CBS Detroit) It was a test, it was only a test, but administrators at Oakland University failed to tell students that when they sent an all-campus text alert saying the school was on lockdown because "there were shots fired and a shooter was still on the loose."

It wasn't true.

University officials declined to discuss the incident in detail except to say it was a yearly test and they're not sure how the text accidentally went out to students.

"Within minutes of learning about this error, university officials acted to correct the voicemail message by sending a corrected text, a campus-wide e-mail, reissuing a voicemail message, posting a story to the university website, and correcting the message through social media networks," the university explained on its website. "University officials regret the error and any confusion and inconvenience it may have caused, and are working to ensure this mistake does not happen again."

Students took to Twitter to express amazement at what happened, with one, Rachel Dixon, writing, "OU is the boy who cried wolf." Many others wrote it was an "epic fail."