Five Cazenovia College residence halls were evacuated and searched for more than 90 minutes late Tuesday night in response to a bomb threat against the college.
According to college President Mark Tierno, the college received the threat at around 10:30 p.m., after which Cazenovia village police and college emergency response personnel responded immediately, following all protocols associated with a bomb threat.
CazAlert text messages were sent to more than 750 students in Shove, Farber, Park, Hubbard and Watts halls instructing them to evacuate and proceed to the designated safety staging area to await further instructions.
Additional CazAlert messages were subsequently sent to students and posted to the college’s home page, the news and events page and the parents web page, Tierno said.
After more than 90 minutes of investigation – building searches by K9 units and law enforcement personnel – police officers found no explosive devices. Police and college officials determined at 12:09 a.m. that the situation was safe and allowed student back into their residence halls.
“We extend sincere thanks to our law enforcement partners and the college employees who worked diligently this evening and early morning to ensure the safety of our students,” Tierno said in a released statement. “I also extend thanks to our students for taking the matter seriously and cooperating with police and college personnel so that we could address the situation and return our campus to normalcy.”
The false bomb threat is now an ongoing investigation and the college will file charges against the culprit(s) when they are caught, said Wayne Westervelt, Cazenovia College vice president for marketing and communications.
Cazenovia police officials were unavailable for comment Wednesday morning.
Jason Emerson is editor of the Cazenovia Republican. He can be reached at [email protected].
