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A four-hour lockdown of three Albuquerque public schools appears to have stemmed from a girl's false report that she saw an armed man on campus, police say.

Albuquerque police Chief Ray Schultz said around noon today that videotapes of the scene at James Monroe Middle School and inconsistencies with the girl's story leads police to believe her story was a hoax. Police are discussing possible charges.

Speaking shortly after the school re-opened at 11:50 a.m., Schultz said, "we couldn't afford to take the chance."

In fact, the report brought dozens of officers from Albuquerque, Rio Rancho and Bernalillo County, descending on the school in swarms and blockading the school on Paradise Boulevard Northwest.

"In light of recent national events, we take a report like this extremely seriously," said Albuquerque Public Schools spokesman Joseph Escobedo. "Any time there's a report like this, you're going to see this kind of response."

Worried parents, meanwhile, stood a block away from the school while police searched it and the grounds. A one-room schoolhouse in Pennsylvania wasn't far from most parents' minds.

"I just remember those five girls dying," said Athena Trench, whose 11-year-old daughter was locked inside James Monroe all morning with about 1,400 other students.

"This is just getting ridiculous," Trench added. "At this point, I don't know if I want her going to school any more. Maybe I'll just home-school her. At least then I know she's safe and OK."

The girl reported seeing a suspicious man to a teacher around 8 a.m., said Escobedo. The teacher notified APS officials, who ordered the school doors locked "within two or three minutes," he said.

Officers swept the school three times but found no suspicious man, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Trish Hoffman said today.

Hoffman said Albuquerque police first heard the report about 40 minutes later, though APS Police Chief Gil Lovato said the delay was no more than 10 minutes.

James Monroe and two nearby elementary schools, Ventana Ranch and Sierra Vista, were locked around 9 a.m. to prevent anyone from getting in or out.

As SWAT officers spread out to search the James Monroe grounds, parents were kept at bay. A knot of them formed at Paradise and Park Avenue Northwest, unable to do anything but worry and listen to news reports blaring from a nearby radio.

John Trujillo, whose daughter is a seventh-grader, watched through binoculars from Paradise Boulevard. He had heard about the lock-down on the radio, then confirmed it through a call to a friend at Albuquerque Police Department.

"It's scary, especially with what's going on in the rest of the country. Something like this is always on the back of your mind," Trujillo said.

From inside the school, tech-savvy students passed rumors but little solid information to their parents.

Mitch Dana, who has a son and a daughter in the school, said he got a text message from his son that a man was in the school. Then came a phone call in which his son whispered, " `You can't pick me up now,' " Dana said.

Given the spate of school violence around the country, he said, "This is just really bizarre."

School Principal Vernon Martinez later addressed the parents and said teachers urged students not to communicate with their parents, fearing it would spread alarm.

After the lockdown was lifted, school officials hoped classes could begin, but parents were allowed to take children home early.

Escobedo encouraged them to wait. "We don't want parents inundating the hallways," he said.

A flood of parents who had been held at bay surged toward the school after the lockdown was lifted. They passed a wave of SWAT officers armed with automatic rifles returning to their vehicles.

Jim Vickrey, who came to pick up his son, said the whole episode was unbelievable.

"It used to be the post office. Now I guess it's the schools. It's really hard to explain."