TULSA (AP) — An Oklahoma newspaper has apologized and retracted a story intended as an April Fools’ prank that claimed all students in one Tulsa-area school district must repeat their current grade level.

All schools in Oklahoma have been ordered closed until the end of the school year to curb the spread of the new coronavirus.

“Sapulpa Schools announces that all students will have to repeat their current grade next year — ‘Sapulpa is dedicated to providing a FULL education, and nothing is going to change that,’” the Sapulpa Times said in the fake story published Wednesday on Facebook. It has since been removed.

Sapulpa School District said it received calls and messages expressing concern. It called the newspaper’s prank “ill-advised and in poor taste,” Tulsa World reported Thursday.

In an apology letter, Micah Choquette, the owner and editor of the Sapulpa Times, said the prank was “a poor attempt at an April Fools’ joke that has turned much more sour than we anticipated.”

Choquette said the school district wasn’t aware of the newspaper’s plan to publish the story.