As protests spread through the nation's streets after Donald Trump won the presidential election last week, unease also began to spread through some of the nation's schools -- including several in Arkansas.
Tuesday's election results touched off a wave of unrest Wednesday at Star City High School, about 25 miles south of Pine Bluff.
By lunchtime, a divided student body straddled the campus' courtyard after altercations broke out, police said. From either end, "students were using the election results as a platform to shout out racial remarks," according to a police report.
The Lincoln County sheriff's office arrived to break up the standoff. Students were sent back to class, but not before officials heard of a gun on campus. The threat sent school officials, state troopers and local police into a schoolwide sweep for weapons. None were found.
For the remainder of the week, deputies used hand-held metal detectors every morning to screen students as they filed into the building. Roughly 470 students are enrolled in the Delta town's high school, but by Thursday attendance had dropped to 150, Lincoln County Sheriff Leonard Hogg estimated.
By midafternoon Thursday, two students had been removed from class and were later arrested on charges related to Wednesday's altercations: one on charges of third-degree battery, disorderly conduct, and terroristic threatening; the other on a charge of disorderly conduct, police said.
[INTERACTIVE: 2016 election coverage]
"We came to school like we normally do, and then a group of white boys started making racial comments to the black kids," said Tyniquia Brown, a senior at Star City High. "First they were going around saying 'Trump train!' and then they started saying we need to leave if we had a problem with our president."
The episode was one of several examples of such behavior in schools and universities across the country since the election of Trump, who made disparaging remarks about some minority-group members during his campaign.
On Wednesday, minority-group students at a high school in Gurnee, Ill., organized a meeting and protest after a "whites only" message was found scrawled on a bathroom door. The same day in Michigan, students at Royal Oak Middle school were filmed chanting "build a wall" in the cafeteria.
At Trump's alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, black freshmen were added to a group text-message thread in which one post read "daily lynching," and one participant was called a "dumb slave." The Penn president said the group chat appeared to be based in Oklahoma. A student at the University of Oklahoma was suspended for his involvement, though that university's president said the chat did not start at the university.
And at Texas State University in San Marcos, between Austin and San Antonio, police were investigating fliers posted around campus urging the formation of "tar & feather vigilante squads" and threatening to "arrest & torture" campus diversity advocates.
Of the roughly 60 Arkansas school districts the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette surveyed last week, none except for Star City reported anything more than verbal or social media harassment.
In Hamburg, school officials received a report of a potential threat Thursday morning. Students were held in the gymnasium while police searched the school for weapons. None were found, according to superintendent Max Dyson, and classes resumed by the afternoon.
At Conway High School, rumors spread across Facebook of fights, bullying and political rallies, all of which were denied by Conway school administrators. But the online posts generated concern from parents and students, compelling Principal Jason Lawrence to give a schoolwide address Thursday morning.
"I have debated whether or not I should get on and say anything about this election, but I now feel that I need to make a statement in order to protect our school, our time and our education," Lawrence said over the intercom.
"This week, half of America is upset, confused, worried, and scared. The other half is excited, optimistic, and proud. One-hundred percent of us are on this rock together," he said.
Within the Fayetteville School District, Superintendent Matthew Wendt cited eight reports of "inappropriate remarks" made by students among the district's secondary schools since Tuesday. In one instance, a student wearing a Trump shirt elicited confrontations from peers, Wendt said.
Bauxite School District reported students making jokes toward a member of a minority group "with regard to things the president-elect said -- with regards to deporting people," district spokesman Tyler Tarver said.
"The situation was handled swiftly, and we're doing our best to make sure nothing happens again," Tarver said.
Most school districts in Arkansas have set no specific policy for how teachers and educators are to conduct discussions about the election or express their personal beliefs.
On Wednesday, Little Rock school administrators issued guidelines -- authored by the National Association of School Psychologists -- on how teachers can prevent animosity and bullying.
In Fayetteville, those discussions are had at the discretion of the teacher.
"I trust our teachers," Wendt said. "Our discussions and conversations must be age-appropriate, and I'm very comfortable entrusting teachers in the classrooms to determine what is age-appropriate and what is not."
During the election cycle, Bauxite fifth-grade teacher Dustin Parsons was tapped by the Hillary Clinton campaign to speak at the Democratic National Convention. On stage, he extolled Clinton's role in shaping education policy in Arkansas.
Back at home, in an overwhelmingly white and conservative county, his moment in the spotlight sparked intrigue among his students, who began to come to him with questions about the election.
"We try and have an open discussion always. Because, yeah, I've had kids that were upset this week, thinking 'what are the ramifications of this?'" Parsons said. "We just have a discussion about how we hear things, but we have to wait and see what happens."
His discussions --which, he said, usually happen with students one-on-one -- focus on the pitfalls of labeling others as Republicans or Democrats and the false assumptions those labels can produce.
"You have to draw such a fine line as an educator in the classroom, and you don't want to cross that line," Parsons said. "I'm the teacher, not the parent."
In the Pulaski County Special School District, Micah Qualls teaches drama and speech at Mills High School. Roughly 80 percent of the school's 700 students are members of minority groups, she said, and last week's election results created an uneasy atmosphere.
Outside her classroom, she posted a sign for students feeling traumatized by the election: "This is a safe space today," it read.
"I've had students I've never met before come in during lunch, and just sit in there and cry and talk," Qualls said. "One kid reported to me that someone just went up behind her and said, 'How does it feel that you have to go back across the border?'
"I had one Hispanic student, who has never talked to me privately, come to me and bawl his eyes out because he's a citizen, but his parents are not," she said.
Like other districts in the state, the Pulaski County Special School District issued no guidelines on how to handle students negatively affected by divisive rhetoric. Qualls said she wishes it had.
"I think some teachers either don't want to hear their complaints ... or they are uncomfortable with fostering dialogue," Qualls said.
Investigations into Wednesday's episode in Star City are ongoing, and the two arrested students are being held in a Pine Bluff juvenile jail ahead of a probable cause hearing Monday, police said.
Lincoln County prosecutor Clint Todd, who is involved in the investigation, is wading through various narratives from police, school officials and students. His investigation began Thursday, and one challenge is sifting through the rumors proliferating through social media, he said.
A Trump mask, for instance, was said to be used in taunting other students at school. Students and parents also reported one student reaching out and choking another.
"It's kind of like that old game where you tell one person in a line something, and as they tell the next person the story changes," Todd said. "I heard somebody say that there could be a gun on campus, then that they found 15 guns on campus all within a matter of hours."
The Lincoln County sheriff's office said they would likely cease student screenings Monday. But parents hope the school will do more to create a long-term safety plan.
"Star City is a hunting town; everybody knows how to shoot," said Dollie Spencer, whose two granddaughters attend the district's middle school. "Just about all the kids have access to guns. So that's what we wanted the superintendent to commit to -- some safety measure that would stay in place, not just for a day or two."
On Thursday morning, a student-led prayer ceremony was held in response to the violence. Superintendent Jon Laffoon said it was a productive step towards healing.
"It's been a tough two days," Laffoon said. "There are so many positive things going on in our schools, and none of that ever gets on TV."
Information for this article was contributed by Errin Haines Whack and Jay Reeves of The Associated Press.
Metro on 11/13/2016