CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- West Mecklenburg High School was on lockdown for two hours Friday morning after administrators thought they spotted a handgun on a surveillance tape, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools officials said.

Officials said a small scuffle started in the hallway but was quickly broken up. Students were sent to their classrooms and administrators reviewed the hallway surveillance tape. School officials said they thought they might have seen a small handgun on one of the students.

They called in police and locked down the school, ordering all students to stay in their classrooms and not allowing anyone in or out of the building other than police officers. Officers and administrators executed random searches for weapons, but no gun was found.

School officials said they now think that what looked like a small handgun may have actually been a cell phone.

Worried parents, like Judy Thompson, could only sit and wait for answers in the school parking lot during the lockdown.

"It's just scary," she said. "It's a scary situation because I don’t know what's going on, and I know my son is in there and I'm trying to retrieve him, and as a parent I can't even do that."

Dawn Peterson's son sent her a text message asking her to come pick him up just after 8 a.m. She didn't know what to do.

"It's just too bad that they don't enlighten parents on what's going on," she said.

Vincent Cesena, a CMS law enforcement director, said he's sympathetic to the feelings of anxious parents, but safety comes first.

"That's not a good thing for moms and dad, to come on the property. A lockdown is in place for the safety of the students," he said.

As a precaution, extra security will be on hand at West Mecklenburg's football game Friday night.