WEST GARDINER (AP) — A West Gardiner elementary school went into lockdown last week when a staff member reported someone inside with a gun, but it turns out the armed person was a Maine State Trooper.

Even though it turned out to be a false alarm, the superintendent of the school district says proper procedure wasn’t followed.

After getting a report of an armed person inside the Helen Thompson School last Wednesday, the principal put the school on lockdown and went to find the armed person, who turned out to be an off-duty trooper visiting a child.

Superintendent Pat Hopkins told the Kennebec Journal (http://bit.ly/1qsbFoA ) the principal should have stayed in her office and immediately called police.

A state police spokesman said the trooper often visits the school and was wearing a badge.