Parents in the White Hall School District on Thursday were alerted to a social media post that has spread across multiple states and was perceived to threaten harm to schools.
Nathan Sullivan, principal of White Hall High School, said a social media post that circulated around Missouri and northeast Arkansas “made its way down to us.” The post was not specific to White Hall and the threat was not credible, he said.
Classes were not interrupted Thursday, Sullivan said.
“We’re fine,” he said, adding a notice was sent directly to parents. “We made authorities and administration aware of the post.”
WHSD Superintendent Gary Williams said the post circulated up to northern Kentucky and reiterated Sullivan’s point that it was not specific to White Hall.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Williams was attending a meeting with other superintendents who had shown him similar posts to their schools. About an hour after seeing one of those posts, Williams said, White Hall officials were alerted of the post they received.
This incident came as schools across the country have dealt with a spate of threats since a shooting at a Winder, Ga., high school killed two teachers and two students on Sept. 4. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported at least eight students in Arkansas have been charged with threats against schools within the past two weeks. On Wednesday, false or potential threats were made against Bethel Middle School in Bryant, Lakeside High School in Hot Springs and at Valley View High School in Jonesboro, according to the Democrat-Gazette.
“It just seems like it’s contagious and wants to spread,” Sullivan said. “It spreads like wildfire.”