This Wednesday, over 200 million U.S. mobile phones received an alert that read “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.”

Following the mass notification, millions of Americans, some who did and others who did not receive the message, took to the Internet to join the chorus of confusion and frenzy taking place. Concerns over what the message meant, how the President would continue to utilize such a mechanism and why it went off when it did became the focus of conversations around the nation. LHS students are not immune to the commotion.

LHS junior Sophie Holsing was puzzled when she first checked her phone, but she was never fazed by the alert.

“I saw it, and quickly ignored it like I do most alerts,” said Holsing. “I kind of saw that it was a presidential alert, but I didn’t really care about it.”

Many people and creative entities took to Twitter to voice or rather, joke about the occurrence.

“The first ‘Presidential Alert’ will be sent to every American’s phone today,” tweeted MAD Magazine. “Minutes later you will also get 250 million texts saying ‘Sounds great!’ from people who pressed reply all.”

In contrast, LHS sophomore Emma Sahly was apprehensive as soon as the notification appeared on her screen.

“Honestly, I was really shocked,” said Sahly. “I thought someone hacked into my phone at first.”

Sahly’s apprehension continued until returning home from school where she got more information.

“I asked my dad what it was about,” said Sahly. “He works in IT, so he told me that the government has a partnership with every cell carrier, and it was just a test.”

School store manager Lori Klaudt recieved an email informing staff of what the presidential alert entailed for students, staff and family.

“[They said] they were testing the system,” said Klaudt. “To me, it was no different from alerts we get from the National Weather Service.”

Throughout the day and the days following, people around the country and here at LHS continued to react to the Presidential Alert. Though the test alert seems to no longer be in the public eye, it is likely that the next use of the system will more than just a test.