The Daily Gamecock

Issue date: 2/21/08 Section: News

Media Credit: MIke Derer, The Associated Press Police cars block the street in front of Saint Peter's College in Jersey City, N.J. during a lockdown Wednesday, which was later reopened by officers when no threat was found.

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - St. Peter's College locked down its campus for several hours Wednesday after the discovery of a note threatening violence at the northern New Jersey school.

The lockdown ended shortly before 3 p.m., after a room-by-room police search of the roughly 3,000-student campus turned up nothing dangerous, school spokeswoman Lorraine McConnell said.

At 10:40 a.m., campus security became aware of the handwritten note, taped in the stairwell of an administration and classroom building, McConnell said.

Within two minutes, the college sent students e-mail and cell phone text message alerts, using a system set up after April's massacre at Virginia Tech, where a gunman murdered 32 people before killing himself.

McConnell said it was the first time the Jesuit school used its text message alert system.

"Living in the world we live in today, we have to respond to a note indicating this would happen," McConnell said.

Rebekah Maroun, 19, a sophomore from Somerset, said she immediately thought about last week's shooting at Northern Illinois University, where a gunman killed five students before committing suicide.

"I felt my heart pounding as soon as I got the text message," she said. "That's actually one of my biggest fears, but you never think it would happen here."

McConnell said she did not know exactly what the note said. Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy said the handwritten note made no mention of bombs or guns, but did threaten violence against the school.

Police immediately ordered the campus closed as they began their search, aided by explosive-detecting dogs. No particular building was mentioned in the note, police said.

Students who live on campus were brought to a nearby gym to have their bags checked, officials said. Commuter students were being sent home, according to a posting on the college's Web site. Up to 1,000 students were evacuated, authorities said.

Carmen Class, a freshman, said some students started to panic when they were told they couldn't leave immediately.

Continued...

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