A shelter in place took place Wednesday at Bunting Hall when word got out about a person on campus with a knife, but police quickly discovered that there was no real threat.
“There was a report of a concern of a student—a female—with a knife, which turned out to be accurate so far as, like, there was a knife, just like there’s a knife in your kitchen. There was no threats,” Vice President for Student Services John Marshal said Thursday. “I think that there was a misunderstanding and I think there was a student involved who needed to get some help but there was no threats, there was no knife as a weapon.”
According to Marshal, the incident that caused police intervention was a student in distress, who has since received some help. The shelter in place was a precaution that the police department took until they could confirm that there was no real threat.
In situations of real campus threats, all students are to receive a text message from the school warning them of the situation. “Had there been a knife wielding person who was a danger, you would have gotten a text [that said] ‘Lockdown: person with a knife at such and such a hall,” Marshal said.
Students never received a text message on the incident because the police never found a threat to report to the school, and the school will only send out warning texts for confirmed threats.
The rumors of a possibly violent person with a knife came from the original report that went out to police, who arrived on campus quickly to investigate further. “The problem was that the report came in either second or third-hand, so it didn’t come in from the two individuals who were involved,” Marshal said. “It came from a third party friend, who I think provided information that was correct but not accurate.”
