Southwestern Central School officials did the smart thing last week by moving outdoor activities inside after a social media post threatened violence at stores in Jamestown and Lakewood.

Even though the FBI and local police agencies quickly said the threats were baseless, the decision to move student activities indoors was smart.

“You know there was a threat in our community,” said Maureen Donahue, Southwestern superintendent. “We didn’t want to stop whatever we were doing with kids, but we certainly wanted to be safe. We brought everybody inside and everyone was really cooperative.”

It’s also certainly understandable if store employees and parents were a bit apprehensive last week. Even though the threat was discredited, there was an added police and security presence near the Lakewood Wal-Mart and the Tops Friendly Markets store on Foote Avenue. Having Flag Day activities outdoors at Southwestern would have been nice for students and visitors. But, school officials were better to be safe than sorry.