Principal Chris Choat’s familiar voice rang through the hallways as he announced through the intercom to students and teachers on Thursday that they were officially in lockdown.

A threat was made in upstairs B-hall, scribbled on the mirrors of both the boys and the girls bathrooms in the same handwriting. It read “Ima shoot the school today @ 3 pm” and scrawled under it was the date. Many students first discovered it from friends and through social media during 4th period.

Pictures of the threat had gone viral throughout the school community almost instantly, the post circulating everywhere from teachers emails to student’s snapchat stories.

“Someone from my class came back from the bathroom and quietly told my teacher, but soon the whole class erupted into gossip over what was posted on Snapchat,” Morrison said. “I sort of just listened in and then checked my phone, and I saw everything they had been talking about.”

The school went on lockout, allowing students to go to their next class and continue their educational process, but no one could leave or come in the building. Freshman Ava Campbell walked from her lunch period back to class, carrying with her the weight of the message on the mirrors.

“I was honestly in shock,” Campbell said. “You hear about these things happening in the news, but I didn’t ever think it would be something that I personally would ever have to worry about happening to my school or even any school in the area. I was worried that my friends and I might lose our lives, and that was terrifying.”

School Resource Officer Luis Camacho and Choat quickly determined that there was no weapon on site. Choat came over the announcements and told the school that everything was safe and students weren’t in any danger.

Students headed to their fifth period after lunches had ended. Junior Ryan Scott headed to his law magnet class with Teacher Brian Sheguit when the school’s safety code was moved to lockdown, and the doors were locked in all the classrooms.

[There was] hearsay and gossip, eventually my teacher told the class what was happening, which I thought was a smart move because the rumors were getting a little bit ridiculous,” Scott said. “The [students] were saying how they were sure it was real and how we were all going to die or how they would single handedly take down the shooter.”

Kids called their parents in panic while parents flocked to the school to pull their kid out of class. They were directed to the library where they were told to wait as teachers hurried around the school pulling the students from classes.

Laura Morrison received a call from her daughter informing her of the graffiti. She called the office only to get an answering machine, so she researched the 2019 Facebook page that was being updated frantically.

“I was really glad she was in class with friends, but I was ready to pull her out if the situation required it,” Laura said. “My greatest hope was that it was a hoax and that the culprits would be found and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. But there’s always that “what if” that creeps in – what if it’s the real deal?”

At 2:41 p.m. the lockdown was over and two girls, a sixteen year old freshman and a fifteen year old sophomore were arrested by Richardson police. According to the Richardson police, they were arrested for a terroristic threat, a 3rd degree felony.

You really gotta stop and think ‘what are the consequences,’” Choat said. “One decision can really alter your life. We gotta be better than that.”

According to the Texas Education Agency once every three years the district must adopt and implement a multihazard emergency operations plan for use in the district’s facilities.

”We open our safety book and we go page by page,” Choat said. “I don’t think we have to go back to our overall plan and restructure it,” Choat said. “I think yesterday went very smoothly, and I was really proud of our staff.”

Automatic doors will be placed in D-hall, where the classrooms are being built. The doors will be installed for extra security, opening only in the morning and passing periods as a new precaution.

So far there have been 19 school shootings in 2018, eight resulting deaths of students or administrators. The latest mass shooting in Parkland, Florida took 17 lives, just a week and day before the threats were made at Richardson.

“I already had some pretty strong feelings about Florida, but it certainly brings the issue closer to home,” Morrison said. “I already was a staunch supporter of gun control, but now I think I’m more likely to be a more vocal advocate. No one should feel enabled to send those kinds of threats, and there needs to be a heightened level of seriousness going forward.”

Since the Parkland shooting, a firestorm of debate has been ignited over gun control with bipartisan support for many reforms.

“I have little faith in the current [government] administration in terms of enacting some kind of policy to protect us, so it’s up to us to make our voices heard and provide that push in the right direction,” Morrison said.