CALGARY -- Just a week after a school massacre in the U.S., several Alberta schools were shut down Friday due to threats of various levels.

Mounties said they arrested a 17-year-old male student in Ponoka, about 200 km north of Calgary, after he allegedly uttered threats and was found in possession of firearms. Police said ammunition, a .22 calibre and a high-powered rifle were found at the house where the teen lives.

Officials at Ponoka Composite High School alerted Mounties of the threat, which led to a lockdown while officers looked for the offender.

Meanwhile, about 100 km west of there, in Rocky Mountain House, classes were cancelled at St. Dominic Catholic High School and West Central High School following reports of a possible threat of violence.

Mounties said they identified a youth as the possible source of the threat but found no evidence of any danger.

In Red Deer, the Catholic school division said a student told another student he would bring a gun to school.

Mounties investigated and found there was no immediate threat.

The Crescent Heights High School in Medicine Hat was also closed as a precaution after an incident school officials called a low risk, while a threat made online in Devon, near Edmonton, led to classes being cancelled.
The scares come exactly a week after 20 students and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., were killed by a 20-year-old gunman who later shot and killed himself.