Austin, Texas – Campus threats forced lock-downs and evacuations at universities and other schools in eight states Tuesday, including Colorado, a day after the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech.
One threat in Louisiana directly mentioned the Virginia rampage, while other incidents in Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, North Dakota, South Dakota and Michigan included reports of suspicious activity.
In Greeley, University of Northern Colorado officials considered canceling Foreign Language Day, expected to draw 1,200 high school students today, but police determined the threat was made by a high school student hoping to skip the event, said Cameron Redwine, who was staffing a hotline for the event.
Boulder High School principal Bud Jenkins sent parents an e-mail Monday night saying school officials found a threat scrawled in a men’s bathroom last month that read “Everybody Dies April 19.”
Students reported seeing similar messages after the Virginia Tech shooting, Jenkins wrote, so he had asked police to increase their presence at the school.
In southeastern Louisiana, a man was arrested Tuesday morning for threatening a mass killing in a note.
Schools Superintendent Jerry Payne said police arrested a 53- year-old man who had given the note to a student.
“The note referred to what happened at Virginia Tech,” Payne said. “It said something like, ‘If you think that was bad, then you haven’t seen anything yet.”‘
In Rapid City, S.D., schools were locked down after reports of a man with a gun outside Central High. No shots were fired, police said.
In Austin, authorities evacuated buildings at St. Edward’s University after a threatening note was found, a school official said.
North Dakota State University buildings were evacuated after an abandoned duffel bag was found on campus. No dangerous materials were found.
In Bloomfield Hills, Mich., school officials called police after parents and students at Cranbrook Schools reported spotting a 6-foot-tall man in a skirt, heels and a wig near a school drop-off area. Police were unable to find anyone meeting that description.
A bomb threat was called in to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, while at the University of Oklahoma, a report of a man carrying a suspicious object prompted calls to police, officials said. The man was carrying an umbrella.
