AUSTIN, Texas - A lockdown at Akins High School had students and parents on edge Thursday morning after a former student made threats to the school.

"I was driving and I was shaking. I just go so scared that I had to just take a U-turn and come back over hear," said Luis Angel Perez, a brother of a student.

"What's going on now is unacceptable. You are going to have a bunch of copy cats and a bunch of kids that think this is funny. This is not funny," said parent Diana Carol.

School officials waited hours to confirm details of the lockdown. Some students felt left in the dark.

"At first I thought it was just a practice run or something like that, but then things started getting more and more suspicious and people saying there was SWAT on campus," noted student Thor Jacobs.

RELATED | Threats from former student prompt Akins High School lockdown

A few weeks ago, the school ran a lockdown drill, so this didn't seem unusual, until it kept going for a few hours.

"That's when I did contact my mom and I did start to freak out just a little bit because I wasn't sure if we were going to be all right or what was going on," said student Michael De La Rosa.

Akins families said communication between parents and the school needs to improve.

"Had it not been for social media or their students notifying them, they would have never known. That adds to the anxiety and the frustration," said Carol.

Loved ones hope this incident will convince administrators to make some changes.

"It's just like, it can happen anywhere and more security from the school because you never know what's going to happen," said Perez.