Hundreds of students enrolled at an Okotoks school are staying home on Thursday because of a threat that was leveled at the school.

Administrators with the Foothills School Division, that oversees operations at Ecole Okotoks Junior High School, made the decision after the threat was discovered.

The threat was made on Wednesday outside of school hours, police say.

"A student told the principal that they had overhead a conversation between other students in which a threat was made. The principal, Lee Kingston, immediately notified the RCMP and the school division administrators for the Foothills School Division. As a precautionary measure, the decision was made to close the school today while our investigation takes place," Cpl. Curtis Peters, RCMP spokesperson for the Southern Alberta district said.

The RCMP says they were alerted by a student, but would not say anything about what sort of threat it was.

"The very specific nature of the threat will not be made public. I can tell you that at no point in time were there any students or members of the public or staff of the school at risk," Peters said.

He said that the threat did not involve a bomb and a K9 unit was dispatched as a precaution to search for any potential threats.

Peters said that while nothing was found in that search, the RCMP takes every threat to students or a school very seriously. "This one was considered to be viable enough that we felt that it should be dealt with an abundance of caution and that the school should be closed.

"This had been done through the cooperation of the RCMP and the school division. we have had great communication between the two and great cooperation."

They are working with officials from the school division to identify suspects connected to the threat. Peters says they have interviewed the complainant and are speaking to a number of other individuals.

John Bailey, superintendent with the Foothills School Division, says the decision to close the school was a joint one made between the school board and the RCMP.

"Our school and our school division is committed to safety and that's why we have closed the school for the day; out of an abundance of caution and wanting to be diligent."

Bailey said that there is no information on when the school will reopen but they will make that decision cooperatively with the RCMP as well.

He did say that this situation is a rare one. "This is a very rare occurence; to have a threat against the safety of staff and students. I have been in the division for two and a half years and this is the first time this kind of level of threat has come up."

Bailey says that they will keep parents informed of any developments regarding the school closures using the same methods that they were informed of the incident in the first place.

Going forward, he said that school administrators will be speaking with students and making sure they know that if they hear something, they should come forward.

Counselling services will also be made available for anyone at the school who need it.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Okotoks RCMP Detachment at 403-995-4202, but anonymous tips can be submitted to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).