NEWBURYPORT —Parents waited anxiously outside Newburyport schools yesterday while students and teachers remained in lockdown inside, as a search for a gunman continued throughout the city.

Some parents sitting outside the Nock Middle School yesterday said they received an e-mail or a phone call from the superintendent's office alerting them that lockdowns were in place at all the schools. The schools were locked down — allowing no one to enter or leave — about 2:35 p.m., with parents allowed to enter the schools about 3:15 p.m., Assistant Superintendent Deirdre Farrell said.

Talking on their cell phones and waiting for more information to come across, parents wondered what was happening, sharing rumors and tidbits they had heard —the gunman robbed Dunkin' Donuts, he robbed a local bank, he held up somebody at the Crow Lane landfill. Parents asked each other what the other had heard, what the others knew.

Donald Zabriskie, who has children at Nock and Molin Upper Elementary, said his wife received a message while at work in Boston.

"It was kind of a scary phone call," he said. "You didn't know what was going on."

The incident raised questions about the schools' protocol for such emergencies, Zabriskie said, adding that parents were left waiting outside without any information about the search or what was happening inside. Parents frequently get automated phone calls about bake sales and other events, he said, but were left without information yesterday.

"You don't know what's happening," he said.

His daughter, Lauren, 10, said she was directed by school staff into the library with other students. Some kids were crying, she said, and wanted their parents.

Superintendent Kevin Lyons said the schools went into lockdown after police passed on reports of a man with a handgun on Hale Street. Students were kept in their classrooms under staff supervision while the lights were turned off, and students were urged to stay quiet while administrators and officials worked with police to secure the area, he said. Buses were sent back to Salter Transportation to wait for further notice.

But someone called the mother of a Bresnahan student about 3 p.m., according to Marshal Thomas Howard, and the mother "unfortunately misunderstood" and thought the gunman was inside the school itself. She called 911, and police rushed to Bresnahan from Nock, searching the building while anxious parents, already in the area to pick up their children, walked up and down the street trying to get information from their cell phones.

As the manhunt was unfolding, Melissa Cotter sat glued to the police scanner in her home only two houses away from Bresnahan Elementary School. Watching police cruiser after cruiser speed toward the elementary school from her home, Cotter said her "heart sank" as she heard over the scanner the man had entered the Bresnahan School. Her daughter Abby is a student at the school and was still in class as the scene was unfolding.

"I just listened and watched," Cotter said. "I was worried about her and the little ones."

Police quickly determined the report was false and drove up and down side streets, alerting parents that the school was secure. Students were only allowed to exit the front of the school, Farrell said.

Questions and confusion

Unlike Cotter, other parents were not aware of the manhunt. Lisa Snyder received a recorded phone call reporting the school was in lockdown but was in the dark as to why the sudden caution.

"I knew that walking students were already released," Snyder said. "My first thought was that there was something wrong with the buses."

Snyder remembers receiving the automated call at 3:18 p.m. She has two children in the school and said her mind ran everywhere and finally landed on the worst case scenario, she thought there might be a bomb on a bus.

Chris Maynard also learned of the lockdown through the recording and said his first instinct was to go toward the school. While leaving his home on Doe Run Drive in Newburyport he was greeted by an Amesbury police cruiser on his lawn.

"I was in shock," Maynard said.

The officer informed him there was a man on the loose and if he saw anything suspicious to immediately call 911.

"When I learned why the schools were on lockdown it was unsettling," Maynard said. "I'm just happy the children were in the school and not in the neighborhood."

Word of the lockdown quickly spread, and parents said rumors were spreading via phone. Jenny Coyle heard of the lock down via e-mail while at work. She thought there must have been a local emergency.

Quickly after reading the e-mail, Coyle's phone rang and she heard the rumor the buses would not be running. Confused, she raced down to the school to retrieve her daughter. In the end, the buses did roll in around 4:15 p.m.

Despite rumors, Coyle said she felt safe with the lockdown process and notification.

"I felt like they contacted me really quickly and efficiently," Coyle said.

The lockdown

After clearing Bresnahan, a "myriad" of police surrounded Nock, Farrell said. Lyons said while school officials organized the lockdown procedure, police were running the scene and advising them when it was safe to bring parents inside. Bringing parents in is not part of the standard lockdown procedure, Lyons said, but the number of police officers in the area made it safe.

Lyons said an officer advised officials that it would be better to keep parents in a central area than have them spread out all over the school grounds, so after getting the go-ahead from the Marshal, school officials herded parents into the cafeteria and the library about 3:15 p.m. Farrell said staff and teachers who know which parents pick up their children were on hand to make sure no one could slip in.

After the parents were inside, teachers brought students to them. Lyons then sent out another Reverse 911 saying that parents could come pick children up at the school. The buses returned, and the last student was dropped off at 5:30 p.m., Farrell said. While Nock canceled after-school student activities, the high school continued its activities.

Lyons said most parents were calm and collected while the lockdown was in place.

"They really understood that we couldn't let them run to their child's classroom, that this was for the protection of all," he said.

Judith Welch was able to go into the school to pick up her son, Robert, a fifth-grader, around 3:30 p.m.

Robert said the school frequently practices lockdown drills, — he's gone through about 10 so far — which meant he knew what to expect yesterday, but it was still scary.

"I was kind of scared because I didn't know what was going to happen," he said. He read a book while he waited to be released from the library, he said.

Lyons said the worst time for a crisis is at arrival or dismissal, but that teachers and staff did a "wonderful" job working with their students. Administrators will meet tomorrow to go over the response to the threat, he said, and communications will be on the agenda. The schools' phones were swamped by parents calling, he said, and sometimes officials could not reach each other due to dead space or other cell phone problems.

"We need to make communications more instant," Lyons said.