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Jules Vasquez reporting
Today wasn't just another school day for St. Martin's De Porres. Police set up a tent on the street, and all vehicles passing on Partridge Street had to go through a vehicular checkpoint.

We saw an officer on patrol inside the school. This is all because of a grenade threat, posted on Facebook:

Annie Palacio, Principal St. Martin De Porres
"There's no panicking going we went straight into strategic mode. We knew what we were supposed to do and we do and we got it done."

And strategic mode meant officers carrying assault on the street corner or a pump shotgun - which may be not the best way to welcome kids to school - but a necessary evil on this day.

Annie Palacio, Principal St. Martin De Porres
"We got to call in the authorities, Mrs. Magdaleno immediately contacted me. We…and she told us that we're gonna have our police officers there, with our canine units at school and probably they were there this morning. They did a sweep of the area, found no grenade, found no explosives, found nothing that could harm our children or the staff here at St. Martin's. But they will stay with us throughout the day for protection of our children and staff."

But for most parents, it wasn't enough. They wanted their kids to go home.

We saw some parents standing hesitatingly at the doorway to the classroom - not sure if they should leave their kids or take the day off.

Annie Palacio, Principal St. Martin De Porres
"One of two parents of course they are a bit fearful, but we try talk to them and give them the option that if your child stays its safe. But they do have the option to take the child home if they wanted to."

While some did choose to stay, others queued up to leave with schoolbags still fresh from the first week of school.

It started with a trickle - and then pretty soon they were going home in bunches. Hand in hand off to home or maybe a free day to play.

Annie Palacio, Principal St. Martin De Porres
"We do have classes going on but it is up to the parents, if they would want their child to stay or to go. So it's an optional thing for the parents but our teachers are here, my managers and everybody is on ground. I am here running the ship which I will continue to do, but our children who are here, they are in class and the teachers are teaching."

School went on - but why did some idle person feel the need to create such panic at a school?

Sahar Vasquez, reporter
"Why do you think someone would pose this threat to a school where children are here, there are a a lot of people here?"

Annie Palacio, Principal St. Martin De Porres
"It was a cowardly act and obviously the person has some type of problem, because someone with good sense - for want of better words - would not do something like that. This is an educational institution."

"So what they did was a spiral effect that can cause a lotta misconceptions, can cause a lot of frustrations, a lot of worries, which is unnecessary. But we don't have any clue why this has happened - but…"

Sahar Vasquez, reporter
"So, it's not alike a personal threat or anything?"

Annie Palacio, Principal St. Martin De Porres
"No, it became personal because the mentioned the new principal and I just got this position a couple weeks ago, along with the school. So, immediately we jumped into the mode of taking it seriously, we will never, ever take something like this lightly."

But, regardless of the cowardly threat, school will continue:

Annie Palacio, Principal St. Martin De Porres
"But we are going to carry on. This is our school. We will have classes, we will have classes today and tomorrow."

Again, we stress the school was thoroughly searched and no explosive device was found. As Principal Palacio noted, school continues as usual tomorrow.