A high school geometry teacher in Washington state was busted for threatening to shoot students, authorities said.

Julie Elizabeth Hillend-Jones, a 58-year-old teacher at Emerald Ridge High School in Puyallup, made the threat while on the phone with a caseworker on Tuesday, but refused to “back off from those comments” as Pierce County sheriff’s officials looked into them, KING-TV reports.

“Everybody knows you don’t talk about guns or make any threats in school,” Pierce County Sheriff’s Detective Ed Troyer told the station. “If the student does it, they’re going to jail. Now we have a teacher doing it.”

The circumstances leading up to the alleged threat is unclear, but Hillend-Jones was arrested at her home early Wednesday after repeating it to a deputy, the station reports.

No weapons were recovered at the teacher’s home, but whether Hillend-Jones planned to carry out her threats is irrelevant, Troyer told KOMO.

“We don’t know what led up to it — obviously there’s something,” Troyer said. “Whether she was actually going to carry it through doesn’t really matter.  Everybody knows — in today’s world, you don’t do that.”

A message seeking comment from sheriff’s officials was not immediately returned Thursday.

Hillend-Jones was placed on administrative leave following her arrest on a charge of threats to injure, Puyallup School District officials said in a statement.

She remained in custody without bail in the Pierce County Jail as of Thursday, jail records show.