An 18-year-old Selma City Schools student was arrested Monday for allegedly telling security guards he had a bomb and a gun in his backpack while entering a school in Selma.

According to Sgt. Evelyn Ghant with the Selma Police Department, the 18-year-old was charged with making a terrorist threat.

Ghant said the incident happened Monday morning at a school on the 500 block of Plant Street.

The student’s book bag set off the metal detectors at the entrance of the school, so security guards asked him to go back through and checked him for anything, according to Ghant.

“When he went through it, that’s when the machine went off, and when it went off that is when they checked his book bag,” Ghant said. “They checked him, and told him to go right back through it, and he didn’t have anything on him.”

Ghant said it was what he said while walking away from the guards that caused them to call the police department.

“He said that he had a gun and a bomb in his book bag … as he was walking away from them after they checked his bag,” Ghant said. “He kept saying it. He said it a second time.”

Ghant said when people say things like that they have to be taken seriously.

“They called us out, and we had to react on it because it is very serious,” Ghant said.

Ghant said the student was arrested and taken to the Selma Police Department for questioning. She said the school did not have to be evacuated, which sometimes happens when a bomb threat is made.

“He never got a chance to go past where you walk in, so he didn’t get a chance to go into class or further into the school with the students,” Ghant said.

Ghant said the student may have said he had a gun and a bomb as a joke, but they have to take it serious.

“We take it very serious and school officials take it very serious,” Ghant said. “You cannot say stuff like that.”

Ghant said the student had a court hearing Tuesday, and the judge is considering putting him in a juvenile program. Ghant said whether he is charged as an adult will depend on what the judge determines.