All campuses in the Eureka Springs School District were put on an approximate 30-minute “soft” lockdown on Friday, May 5, after school officials said a student shared a graphic to other students indicating a threat to the school.

“We had a student that had a meme that said there’s an active shooter in the building and then airdropped the meme to other students,” Superintendent Bryan Pruitt said Tuesday, April 9. “The students who received it reported it to administration and we immediately contacted the Eureka Springs Police Department.

Pruitt said ESPD officers arrived at the school district complex “immediately” and “swept and cleared the buildings and made sure there was no threat or weapons.” “It’s unfortunate that things like that happen but we take it very seriously,” he said. “It’s not a mess-around thing. [Students] can’t be joking around and we’re not going to be lenient when things like that happen.”

Pruitt said the student who sent the meme was identified and was “issued a citation.”

“It’s out of our hands at that point,” he said, adding that the student would not be returning to campus.

A weekly activity report sent out by the ESPD on Tuesday, May 9, does not mention the incident.

No one was able to enter or leave school buildings during the lockdown, Pruitt said.

“It probably took 30 minutes for the police department to go through and check all of our facilities,” he said. “As soon as they cleared everything, we went back to school, back to business.”