Administrators at a Lower East Side school panicked after a student posted lyrics to a Johnny Cash song on Instagram, interpreting the soulful crooner's words as a threat.

A teenage student at the New Explorations into Science, Technology and Math posted lyrics from the song "The Man Comes Around," along with the crest of the school and the date "4/16/15."

They lyrics are:

There's a man going around taking names
And he decides who to free and who to blame
Everybody won't be treated all the same
There'll be a golden ladder reaching down
When the Man comes around

It's possible to see why the lyrics might be construed as threatening, especially because 15-year-olds are stupid and don't understand the difference between biblical foreboding and "I'm bringing a knife to school, biatches."

Principal Olga Livanis emailed parents of high school students assuring them their kids were not going to be harmed by any "man" coming around "taking names." Here's the whole thing:

Dear NEST+m Lower School Families,

This morning a number of our Upper School students received an Instagram message from an Upper School student. The Instagram included an image of our school crest, the date “4/16/15,” and an excerpt from song lyrics that students perceived to be threatening.

We spoke with the parents of the student who wrote the message and were reassured that the student’s message was not meant to be a threat to anyone. However, we have taken several precautionary measures to ensure our students’ safety.

We listened to the concerns of many Upper School students today and are aware that several are planning not to attend school on Thursday. We ask that you have a conversation with your child about this issue and reassure them that we have taken all steps necessary to ensure their safety and that of our school community.

Sincerely,

O. Livanis

Still, the message failed to reach the parents of lower classes, enabling several students to ditch school for the day. One parent who forwarded us the email says, "I think it's interesting that DOE policy is apparently to tell parents enough information to scare them but not enough to actually make an informed decision about whether school is safe or not. The admin was told by DOE that they were not to provide any info to parents other than this letter. The result is that many parents have kept their children home today."

As Cash once sang:

Multitudes are marching to the big kettledrum
Let's get the hell out of here and go smoke some weed.