Although there were rumors of a potential protest at Kingfisher Public Schools, one never materialized last week.

The rumors did, however, prompt several parents to opt to keep their children out of school on Thursday.

Most parents were originally alerted last Tuesday afternoon of the potential of a protest at the school.

The message was sent by Superintendent David Glover via the Remind app and read: “It has been brought to my attention that there is word going around about a ‘peaceful protest’ that will happen on our campus this Thursday.

“If it does happen I want to assure you that our students are safe and we will conduct ourselves in a business as usual way. I have met with our school resource officer and he has assured me that we will make sure it in no way disrupts the school day.

“Hopefully this is just a rumor and does not happen, but please know that I am totally committed to the safety and well-being of our students.”

Glover told the Times & Free Press Tuesday afternoon that the potential of protest was “in response to an inappropriate Twitter post made by one of our staff members.”

Glover added the posts “are not anything that’s a representation of the community of Kingfisher or our school system.”

Social media was ablaze the previous week following games at the Class 4A boys state basketball tournament.

Douglass defeated Kingfisher 31-29 in overtime in the semifinals at Yukon High School. The Trojans went on the next night to defeat Weatherford for the state championship.

Demeaning posts on Twitter were directed toward the Douglass program, prompting backlash on both Twitter and Facebook.

Glover later on Tuesday sent out another Remind post reiterating that: “…there was an insensitive post that was sent out after the semifinal basketball game directed toward the Douglass basketball team. Some people from the Douglass community took offense to those remarks and there is a rumor that a peaceful protest will take place.”

No protestors were on any of the KPS campuses on Thursday or at the KPS Administration Building.

Still, the potential was enough for several parents to keep their children home from school.

There were 221 absences reported districtwide on Thursday.

Of those, 97 were reported at Gilmour Elementary, which includes the pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and first grades.

Another 50 were reported at Heritage Elementary, which houses second and third graders.

The Kingfisher Upper Elementary (fourth-sixth grades) reported 37 absences, Kingfisher Junior High (seventh-eighth grades) 13 and Kingfisher High School 24.

Gilmour Principal Makylah Tollefson said daily absences range from 10 to 20 students. She added that, during flu season, the number was only around 50 students.