JOSH RANNEY
News Editor
Much of the campus community woke up Monday morning to an email from University President Virginia Horvath, explaining an incident from overnight that sparked some concern for campus safety.
“A non-specific, written threat was discovered on campus overnight, resulting in a thorough investigation by the University Police and external law enforcement agencies,” read the email.
Horvath explained that the investigating law enforcement agencies determined
that the threat was not immediate enough to warrant cancelling classes or other activities, so the day went on as normal for Fredonia students and faculty.
However, those on campus on Monday may have noticed the increased police presence throughout much of the morning and into the afternoon.
While the threat had been seen and investigated by the time students came on campus for their first classes and faculty members came to work, the increased police patrols were to, “ensure that our campus is safe,” said Horvath.
Chief of University Police, Ann Burns said she received a call from the office around 3 a.m. saying that a custodian had found threatening writing on a cubicle in Reed Library.
Burns said when she arrived at the library, shortly after 3 a.m., she contacted Vice President of Enrollment and Student Services, Cedric Howard.
“He would contact Dr. Horvath, and they
would then decide who else they needed to contact,” said Burns. “So he handles that, and I do the law enforcement side,” she said.
After determining that the threat was very “non-specific,” Burns and the
University Police sought outside counsel. “In an overabundance of caution, I
contacted Joe Gerace,” said Burns.
Joe Gerace, the Chautauqua County Sheriff, along with New York State Police, swept the building with bomb sniffing dogs.
Burns said that, fortunately, being as early in the morning as it was, the only people in the building were cleaners.
“We evacuated the building first then locked it down,” Burns said.
Burns said when a building is locked down, no one’s keys will work in it anymore, that way, police are ensured the building is secured.
“It was another set of eyes, and ears and noses to go through the building to make sure there wasn’t anything that we didn’t think should be there,” said Burns.
Among the law enforcement personnel on campus responding to the threat was University Police, a Village of Fredonia Police officer, two New York State Troopers, and Brent Isaacson of the Jamestown FBI office.
Burns explained that after the Newtown, Conn., tragedy, the FBI has taken a leadership role in school safety.
“[Isaacson is] one of the fifty agents in the country that is trained in this,” said Burns. “In these kind of situations, we rely on him and the experience of the other partners that we have . . . It’s nice to work with our partners who are always there for us.”
After discussions amongst law enforcement officials, it was determined that this threat did not rise to any significant level.
“Had we thought for a second that there was a credible threat, the building would have been closed,” said Burns.
It was decided that the building did not need to remain locked down or be closed for the day, but there would be a police presence in and around the building.
Burns said the building was kept locked until almost 7 a.m.
Burns said she had fielded a few calls from parents who were concerned when they saw President Horvath’s message saying there was an incident overnight. But, because of the action taken by law enforcement, many of their concerns were settled.
“As soon as I told them what was happening, what we did and how we resolved it, they were very pleased,” said Burns, “Not only at the transparency but the fact that we do have an overabundance of caution.”
Around a year ago, multiple threats were made on campus that prompted a thorough police response, as well. As to whether those threats were similar or correlated with the one on Monday, Burns said, “No.”
“It wasn’t the same,” she said, “We looked at the specificity of this, and it just wasn’t.”
Burns said because there were no specific details, it was not viewed as a credible threat.
As to the notification of the campus community, Director of Marketing and Communications, Jeff Woodard said, “It’s the protocol to get the same message to everyone on campus.”
In President Horvath’s initial email, the New York Alert was mentioned as a reminder that under the circumstance of a credible, immediate threat, that service would be activated.
Woodard said that once the message was sent informing the community, the statement had been discussed at length with those involved.
“By the time the message had gone out, there had been a discussion between law enforcement and [Fredonia] administration, back and forth,” said Woodard.
Burns said, from here, an extensive investigation of running camera footage will be conducted.
“We do have a timeframe of when we know this was written on the wall,” said Burns, “So we’re going to be spending a lot of hours running through the tape.”
Threats of this kind, when prosecuted, almost certainly come with jail time. Burns said that in some courts, recently, defendants have been charged with the responsibility of paying for the cost of the response.
“The response this morning, when you think about the Sheriff’s office, the State Police, FBI and all the dogs . . . that’s going to be tens of thousands of dollars.”