Bomb threats across the country coincide with academic calendars – The Cauldron

Campus Security and Cleveland Police outside of Fenn Tower. Photo courtesy of Jack Brancatelli

Students and staff were evacuated from Fenn Tower to the Cleveland State University Recreation Center on Dec. 2, as police and fire arrived on campus to investigate a bomb threat.

Although no bomb was reported found, college campuses across Ohio and in other parts of the country are facing similar threats as finals week approaches.

Without a clear cause, bomb threats have been making their way to campus telephone lines, and at primary schools and secondary education for quite some time. According to National School Safety and Security Services, a “January 1999 explosion in a high school locker in Kansas City sent 11 students to the hospital.”

With almost a trail of violence in schools leading back over 20 years, the cautious measures taken to ensure safety for students are understandable to most. However, even when a threat is not carried out, the anxiety and panic alone can be detrimental to school communities.

Especially on college campuses, a horrifying threat seems to always remain a possibility as curriculum calendars get closer to crucial testing schedules. Within the month of November, Brown, CSU, Columbia, Cornell, Miami (Ohio), New York, Ohio, Southern California, and Yale students were all contacted by their campus safety institutions to warn them of bomb threats.

All these threats were false, but students were still asked to stay away from the premises as police inspected the site.

Each school that faced a threat has one thing in common: the semester schedule. As possibly an attempt to have classes canceled and tests dismissed, many of the bomb threats aligned with mid-term and final exam weeks across the board. This may be a response to increasing academic stress students are facing during the year of transition back to in-person learning.

Things have not increased on CSU’s campus in terms of security measures, despite some students calling for it. Finals week remains scheduled for Dec. 6-11.