JCMAN320
February 22nd, 2008, 10:28 PM
St. Peter's College reopened after lockdown
by Ana M. Alaya and Joe Ryan/The Star-Ledger Wednesday February 20, 2008, 8:42 PM
St. Peter's College in Jersey City was reopened shortly before 3 p.m. today after a threatening note triggered a four-hour ordeal of locking down and evacuating the campus, authorities said.
The note - found taped in the stairwell of an administration and classroom building - referenced killing and last April's massacre at Virginia Tech, as well as guns and bombs, according to a school spokeswoman. But no danger was found after police and dogs made a building-by-building sweep of the campus, according to the college.
St. Peter's was declared secure at 2:51 p.m., according to the school's website, and evening classes starting after 5 p.m. proceeded as scheduled.
http://blog.nj.com/ledgerupdates_impact/2008/02/large_STpete.jpg
Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-Ledger
A Jersey City police officer on JFK Boulevard tells a student the college is closed.
The 3,000-student campus was locked down at 10:42 a.m., and all classes scheduled to start before 5 p.m. were canceled, according to the college. Evacuations from campus buildings started just before 1 p.m., as students boarded buses or hustled to meet anxious parents waiting across the street from campus.
Up to 1,000 students were evacuated, authorities said.
"While it is a pity to realize that such an emergency system is necessary, it is a relief to know that it can be effective in safeguarding our community," St. Peter's President Eugene J. Cornacchia said. "I applaud my staff and the Jersey City police department, as well as the students who remained calm during this disruptive period."
Some staff and students received e-mails and text messages alerting them of the lockdown. Security guards locked all building doors, which could be pushed open from inside, said Barbara Kuzminski, a secretary who works on the third floor of Loyola Hall.
A helicopter hovered overhead as officers swept the campus with dogs. Students and staff watched from windows, eager for news.
When the evacuation began around 1 p.m., authorities directed students who live in St. Peter's dormitories to an on-campus auditorium. Commuter students were ushered off campus and offered rides to transit hubs on buses operated by the Hudson County Sheriff's Office and Jersey City Recreation Department. Faculty and staff were told to go to the college's Recreational Life Center.
http://blog.nj.com/ledgerupdates_impact/2008/02/large_xlookdown.jpg
Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-Ledger
St. Peter's students use their cell phones while being locked down on campus.
The threat comes less than a week after a gunman killed five students at Northern Illinois University, and nine days after a man shot himself at Seton Hall University in South Orange, triggering a campus lockdown. In April 2007, a gunman killed 32 people and himself in a mass shooting at Virginia Tech.
As news of today's lockdown broke, parents and students traded nervous cell phone calls text messages.
Nancy Class ran to campus from her nearby job when she got the call from her daughter, a freshman at St. Peter's.
"She said 'Mom, come get me. Come get me,'" Class said. "As soon as I heard those words, I dropped everything and came."
Some students were frustrated, saying they had been given little information. False rumors about a gunman swirled, and some students dismissed the threat as a ruse. Others were irritated about being ordered to stay inside, instead of evacuated right away.
Chris Della Fave, an 18-year-old freshman from Hoboken, sat for 45 minutes in a classroom building before exiting out a back door.
"I figured I don't want to be a waiting duck," he said, adding that he had not received a text message despite having signed up for the school's alert system.
by Ana M. Alaya and Joe Ryan/The Star-Ledger Wednesday February 20, 2008, 8:42 PM
St. Peter's College in Jersey City was reopened shortly before 3 p.m. today after a threatening note triggered a four-hour ordeal of locking down and evacuating the campus, authorities said.
The note - found taped in the stairwell of an administration and classroom building - referenced killing and last April's massacre at Virginia Tech, as well as guns and bombs, according to a school spokeswoman. But no danger was found after police and dogs made a building-by-building sweep of the campus, according to the college.
St. Peter's was declared secure at 2:51 p.m., according to the school's website, and evening classes starting after 5 p.m. proceeded as scheduled.
http://blog.nj.com/ledgerupdates_impact/2008/02/large_STpete.jpg
Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-Ledger
A Jersey City police officer on JFK Boulevard tells a student the college is closed.
The 3,000-student campus was locked down at 10:42 a.m., and all classes scheduled to start before 5 p.m. were canceled, according to the college. Evacuations from campus buildings started just before 1 p.m., as students boarded buses or hustled to meet anxious parents waiting across the street from campus.
Up to 1,000 students were evacuated, authorities said.
"While it is a pity to realize that such an emergency system is necessary, it is a relief to know that it can be effective in safeguarding our community," St. Peter's President Eugene J. Cornacchia said. "I applaud my staff and the Jersey City police department, as well as the students who remained calm during this disruptive period."
Some staff and students received e-mails and text messages alerting them of the lockdown. Security guards locked all building doors, which could be pushed open from inside, said Barbara Kuzminski, a secretary who works on the third floor of Loyola Hall.
A helicopter hovered overhead as officers swept the campus with dogs. Students and staff watched from windows, eager for news.
When the evacuation began around 1 p.m., authorities directed students who live in St. Peter's dormitories to an on-campus auditorium. Commuter students were ushered off campus and offered rides to transit hubs on buses operated by the Hudson County Sheriff's Office and Jersey City Recreation Department. Faculty and staff were told to go to the college's Recreational Life Center.
http://blog.nj.com/ledgerupdates_impact/2008/02/large_xlookdown.jpg
Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-Ledger
St. Peter's students use their cell phones while being locked down on campus.
The threat comes less than a week after a gunman killed five students at Northern Illinois University, and nine days after a man shot himself at Seton Hall University in South Orange, triggering a campus lockdown. In April 2007, a gunman killed 32 people and himself in a mass shooting at Virginia Tech.
As news of today's lockdown broke, parents and students traded nervous cell phone calls text messages.
Nancy Class ran to campus from her nearby job when she got the call from her daughter, a freshman at St. Peter's.
"She said 'Mom, come get me. Come get me,'" Class said. "As soon as I heard those words, I dropped everything and came."
Some students were frustrated, saying they had been given little information. False rumors about a gunman swirled, and some students dismissed the threat as a ruse. Others were irritated about being ordered to stay inside, instead of evacuated right away.
Chris Della Fave, an 18-year-old freshman from Hoboken, sat for 45 minutes in a classroom building before exiting out a back door.
"I figured I don't want to be a waiting duck," he said, adding that he had not received a text message despite having signed up for the school's alert system.