LEWISTON — School officials sent a note to parents dispelling rumors of a gunman near Lewiston Middle School on Thursday.

Superintendent Jake Langlais said in the note that a parent notified a student that there was a gunman near the middle school and sent someone to pick up the student. He said the student then announced it in a hallway.

The Lewiston Police Department and middle school administration swept the area, increased police presence for dismissal, and are following up with the parent, but police do “not have any notification or call of any kind that involves a weapon in the entire city at the moment,” according to Langlais.

“I want to start by saying there is NO threat to LMS,” he said. “Certainly things are escalated given the tragic news of recent shootings.”

Langlais said the rumor was initiated by a co-worker of the parent hearing “that there was an alert on an app that said there was someone with a gun near school.”

“It is unclear where this initiated but we are following up to see if we can find out what alert was seen and on which app,” he said. “One rumor is that something was posted about an unsolved shooting from a couple weeks ago and with things being so escalated, someone took it as a ‘new and now’ situation.

“We take this very seriously. If you see something — say something. We will not live in fear but we will not be dismissive of any information,” Langlais said.