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School Locked Down After Auto-Correct Texting Mishap

Phone changes 'gunna' to 'gunman' in message sent to wrong number
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 1, 2012 4:55 AM CST
School Locked Down After Auto-Correct Texting Mishap
Auto-correct can be tricky, the student learned.   (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, FILE)

A Gainesville high school student who apparently flunked Texting 101 caused a school lockdown yesterday. The West Hall student intended to peck out "gunna be at west hall today," but his cell phone's automatic spelling correction feature changed "gunna" to "gunman" in a text message that the student accidentally sent to a wrong number, reports the Gainesville Times.

The concerned recipient of the "gunman be at west hall" message called the police, who ordered a campus lockdown before tracing the message to its sender and determining there was no threat. "It was a combination of odd circumstances," a police spokesman says. "We want to emphasize that the recipient did the right thing in reporting the message." (More SMS stories.)

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