Konawaena High School went into lockdown shortly after 8 a.m. Thursday after someone phoned in a threat against the Kealakekua campus, prompting more than a dozen police officers to sweep the grounds before clearing it as safe less than two hours later.
Police received the call from the school a little after 8 a.m. reporting the threat, and the campus was immediately put under lockdown, according to bigislandnow.com. The Hawai‘i Department of Education separately confirmed that the school had received a threatening call and placed itself on lockdown. As reported by Hawaii News Now, details were still unfolding in the early going as officers arrived on scene.
Officers Canvass Campus, Find Nothing Suspicious
More than a dozen officers responded to the high school once the lockdown took effect, the same bigislandnow.com report states. Those officers canvassed the campus and did not observe anything suspicious during their search, and the nature of the threatening call itself was not disclosed by police.
Police cleared the school and lifted the lockdown at 9:45 a.m., according to the outlet's report. Everyone at Konawaena High School was safe, per Hawaii News Now, once the lockdown was lifted Thursday morning.
A Pattern of Lockdowns at the Kealakekua Campus
Thursday's scare is not the first time Konawaena High School has gone into lockdown. In May 2024, a behavioral disturbance involving a student led to a campus lockdown that was lifted at 12:30 p.m. after the student was arrested, the same bigislandnow.com account from that incident noted. In February 2025, the Hawaiʻi Police Department says it located a vehicle at a nearby residence and arrested three 18-year-old men and a juvenile on suspicion of first-degree terroristic threatening, with the campus placed on a 45-minute precautionary lockdown during that response.
It is not established whether Thursday's incident is connected to those earlier lockdowns or to any other reported threats against the school. School lockdowns prompted by threats or nearby police activity are not unique to Hawai‘i Island this month — three Oahu elementary schools were placed under a precautionary lockdown in Kailua at the start of October after a police pursuit led to a search for an armed suspect, according to Hawaii News Now.
For now, Konawaena High School has returned to normal operations following Thursday's brief lockdown, with police reporting no suspicious findings during their search of the campus.
