Threat and Reaction

[ReThink]

1. 2. 3.

On Thursday after leaving my 8:30 class I came across an unexpected sight, two police officers in bulletproof vests watching one of the entrances to my university. I later found out that a threat had been written in one of the men's washrooms. Apparently it specified that the school was to shot up on the 26th. From what I've heard this is apparently the censored version of the message, the actual message was much more vulgar.

I think I counted 10 police officers, all in bulletproof vests, guarding the various entrances to the university. Now, it is a relatively small university, most of it localized in one large building, 10 officers might not seem like much, but it's hard not to notice them given the size of the place.

It's hard to know how to react to this. There's the possibility the threat could be genuine, or it could be just a prank. The university isn't taking any chances.

Now given the response it seems unlikely that the threat will go down as planned, if it was real, the person who wrote the message would probably wait till the police presence leaves. But the police would know this naturally, so I expect they will stay longer than just till Wednesday. How long will that be? Who knows. There's no guarantee we'd be safe in any situation.

But given that it was written in a washroom (painted on one of the walls I've heard) it might just be a prank. Are the authorities overreacting?

A lot of people have told me they won't be coming to class this Wednesday, and the university has said that no student can be penalized for missing class on that day. I plan to go to all my classes.

What do you think? Is this an overreaction, or a just response? If it was happening at your school would you go to class? Would you change your daily routine because of it?

[JudgeDredd]

It's time to put cameras in all school toilets..

[Draconias]

Well a distinct threat has been made, it is the repsonsibility of the school to do whatever it must to ensure that the student body will be safe. I, personally, would probably skip class on that day simply because I can, but either way I would be aware of the situation and be prepared for any incident that might occur, even if any actual problems are highly unlikely.

Such an act is not funny in any way and should not be treated a prank. It's the nature of that kind of threat that it must be taken seriously. If they catch who wrote it, he or she should be punished as if it was real (for inciting panic).

[K-RadPie]

This happens to my school about every 3 years.

1. Obviously fake bomb threat in bathroom
2. About a dozen cops are sent in
3. We all get searched
4. We all get sent to Elementary School
5. We stay in the Elementary School gym for the rest of the day, and can't leave

[SmilezRoyale]

Sounds to me like somone's trying to get some extra 3 day weekends.

unfortunatly, when you ignore these kinds of things you have situations where the rare occasion columbines and virginia tech's receive WTFOMGHAX responses.

[GuitarSmuggler]

When it comes to threats of harming the school there is no such thing as overreacting. The school and authorities have to take these things seriously, even if it is some stupid prank. Because if a bomb does happen to go off, or a maniac starts shooting up the school, they would look stupid and get blamed for not taking appropriate action when they received the threat. I bet the school and authorities now it is most likely a prank, but they have to take situations like these seriously.

At my school for instance, a threat to blow up the school was written somewhere on the bathroom stalls. It of course turned out to be a hoax, but we were forced to wait outside for hours while the school was being inspected. The police did find the person who wrote it however, and he was expelled and faced criminal charges. Which I think is completely fair considering he was threatening to harm the school and students, and because it serves as a warning to others that this is no joke.

[escudo0]

In my highschool we had a sniper drill.

If a sniper was ever in or on top of the school all the students were all supposed to walk single file out to the football field, where a single bullet from a sniper rifle has the ability to kill 3-4 kids at a time and not only that, from the top of the school is a perfectly clear line of sight.

I felt so safe after that drill.

[K-RadPie]

At 9/23/07 03:44 PM, escudo0 wrote: In my highschool we had a sniper drill.

God, your school must be run by retards. Wouldn't it be infinitely safer to stay inside the building and call a SWAT team or something?

[GuitarSmuggler]

At 9/23/07 03:44 PM, escudo0 wrote: In my highschool we had a sniper drill.

If a sniper was ever in or on top of the school all the students were all supposed to walk single file out to the football field, where a single bullet from a sniper rifle has the ability to kill 3-4 kids at a time and not only that, from the top of the school is a perfectly clear line of sight.

I felt so safe after that drill.

That's odd :S

Most schools in my area practice what is called a lockdown drill in the event of a shooting. Basically when a school's on lockdown, all students must remain in a classroom, lock the doors, close the curtains and wait for the police. That seems more logical to me then wandering outside, becoming open target. But I guess it can depend on the situation as well.

[escudo0]

At 9/23/07 04:35 PM, GuitarSmuggler wrote: At 9/23/07 03:44 PM, escudo0 wrote::
That's odd :S

Most schools in my area practice what is called a lockdown drill in the event of a shooting. Basically when a school's on lockdown, all students must remain in a classroom, lock the doors, close the curtains and wait for the police. That seems more logical to me then wandering outside, becoming open target. But I guess it can depend on the situation as well.

We had those too. Those kinda made more sense except for all hiding in a corner away from the door and shutting off the lights like nobody's home.

The best ones though were the bomb drill in which we were all supposed to go into the gym incase of a bomb threat. Not a bad idea untill you consider that our gym had exposed rusting I-beams. Stupid fucking case high.

[Ornithorynque]

At 9/23/07 01:29 AM, JudgeDredd wrote: It's time to put cameras in all school toilets..

We have those here