A 46-year-old man was arrested by police yesterday in connection with a reported threat to shoot 30 students at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.

Maj. Frank Fujii, a spokesman for the Honolulu Police Department, said the man was taken into custody without resistance about 2:45 p.m. near Honolulu Stadium State Park in Mo'ili'ili.

On Thursday, university officials issued a campuswide e-mail alert after a man was overheard on a city bus shortly before 11:30 a.m. saying he was planning to shoot the students at the university.

A man fitting the description was seen about two hours later riding a bicycle near the campus, but left before officials could question him, a UH spokesman said.

Fujii said police are continuing to investigate the incident as a terroristic threatening case. The man taken into custody yesterday was not arrested on a specific charge, police said.

The man was taken to an area hospital for treatment, Fujii said, noting that the next step in the investigation will be determined by the results of the medical evaluation.

Police said they could not release details about the man's condition or other details about the arrest. Fujii said no other suspects are being sought in the case at this time.

University Laboratory School officials, meanwhile, are reviewing their response to the reported threat against students and stood by their decision not to tell parents what happened until yesterday.

Lab school principal Fred Birkett planned to send a letter home with the lab school's 413 students yesterday informing parents about the school's response to the reported threat, which included stepping up security measures.

Additional security officers yesterday joined UH campus security officers who normally patrol the lab school campus, said Donald Young, director of the Curriculum Research and Development Group, a division of the UH College of Education that operates the University Laboratory School adjacent the UH College of Education.

Jo Ann Viernes, whose daughter, 10th-grader Kelly Viernes, attends the lab school, said, "The lab school is unique because it's part of the UH system, it's on the UH campus, which is huge and has easy access for strangers." She added, "So, I trust the teachers to make the best decisions as far as safety goes for my child."

Principal Birkett and lab school administrators did not tell the 80 or so lab school teachers and researchers about the specific threat until a staff meeting after school on Thursday.

UH's Young said, "As a parent, I understand the anxieties." He continued, "But everything that could have been done and should have been done was done. I believe we took every reasonable precaution."

On the other side of University Avenue, UH officials sent out e-mail alerts about the threat Thursday afternoon to 20,000 students, 5,000 faculty, 2,000 staff and to officials at UH's Bachman Hall and the nearby East-West Center, UH spokesman Greg Takayama said.

But the lab school doesn't have the same technology, Young said. And it would have been impossible to telephone each of the parents at the same time that lab school officials were telling teachers to keep students indoors and Honolulu police and campus security were looking for the man who reportedly made the threat.

"Even if we could have done it, by contacting all of the parents it would have escalated the situation beyond what was required," Young said. "It would have gotten people much more excited than was warranted."

The lab school followed its emergency response plans.

The man who reportedly made the threat got off TheBus near McCully Street around 11:30 a.m., police said. At about 2 p.m., campus security spotted someone fitting the man's description riding a bicycle on Dole Street toward the lab school.

UH security chief Neal Sakamoto had already called a lab school vice principal about the threat around 1:45 p.m. but the vice principal was in Montana, said Tracy Teixeira, a lab school assistant administrator.

The vice principal then "called me from Montana and I called Neal just as he and six officers walked into my office around 1:47 p.m.," Teixeira said. "I contacted Mr. Birkett and we set the emergency protocol plan into action. We did not want to elevate any panic. We just needed to keep the kids in the classroom."

This is the first year as lab school principal for Birkett, who most recently was principal at Lanikai Elementary School.

Birkett and the other administrators went to each classroom "to make sure the doors were closed and the children were inside," he said. "We let all the students know that there was an emergency and they had to go directly home. We canceled all campus after-school practices, volleyball, football."

Kindergarten through third-graders were then let out of school as usual at 2:30 p.m., followed by fourth- and fifth-graders at 2:45 p.m. and sixth- through 12th-graders at 3:30 p.m., Teixeira said.

Reach Mike Leidemann at mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com and Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.