Sallisaw School Superintendent Ron Wyrick said Tuesday that a girl found a note about the bomb threat at about 12:30 p.m. and turned it into a teacher, who turned it into the office.
"It wasn't serious, but you can't take it lightly," Wyrick said. "A kid wrote a stupid note. It said a bomb was going to go off at 1:30 p.m."
Wyrick said the note said something to the effect, "Don't open this or you'll die." The note gave a time of 1:30 p.m., but Wyrick pointed out that the note also had flowers on it.
Greg Cast, middle school principal, and Tracy Baker, assistant principal, locked down the building until a search was conducted. Wyrick said the search took just a few minutes.
Justin Smithson, school resource officer, was on the scene, and the middle school boy who wrote the note, along with the boy's parents, were interviewed.
A member of the OHP bomb squad, who has children in the school system, happened to be on hand and helped to take control of the situation.
The student who wrote the note was immediately suspended and will be suspended until he is cleared by a mental health professional to determine the boy is not a danger to himself or others, Wyrick said. "He's going to have to be cleared."
Wyrick pointed out that the child had never been in trouble at the middle school.
"Mr. Cast and Mrs. Baker took charge of the situation," Wyrick said, indicating that both Smithson and OHP Officer Hamilton were assets during the incident.
While school officials did not think the threat was serious, they still went through precautions. "You still have to do it," Wyrick said.
