Clamor, confusion, and chaos described the Oxford School District late into last Friday’s school day.

All Oxford schools were forced into lockdown procedures around 1:30, and remained that way until school’s end. At the high school, the last half of the educational day was cut short due to threats on the school.

According to Superintendent Brian Harvey, a series of threatening texts were sent to an assistant principal at the high school, prompting the district wide lockdown.

“There was a series of text messages saying that there was a specific threat to the high school,” Harvey said. “It gave a time, which was after school was to be dismissed, and that’s really all we know as of now. We’ve asked for help from the Oxford Police Department and federal law enforcement agencies, but we really don’t have any more information other than that as of now.”

Although Harvey could not release the exact text, he was able to comment on its nature.

“The text was more on the lines of ‘There will be an attack,’ not ‘I will attack.’ The threats were specific, but they were not directed at any one person, and when I read them, I did not feel that they were directed at the assistant principal. Although it was fairly specific, it really wasn’t.”

After the situation was analyzed by Harvey and other district personnel, they issued that schools enter a “soft lockdown,” a new procedure for this year.

“A soft lockdown, which is new this year, is where something in the neighborhood of the school is going on,” Harvey said. “The school is not in imminent danger, but let’s get everybody inside and keep the doors closed and secure. In this case, the threat was specific about after hours, so that’s why we went to a soft lockdown after the immediate hard lockdown.”

As of Wednesday afternoon, no suspect has been named, and there are no updates on the nature of the crime; however, according to Harvey, the Oxford Police Department is leading the investigation.

The Oxford Police Department is unable to comment on ongoing investigations.

*This is an ongoing story, and will be updated periodically with new information.