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UT-Austin completely evacuated because of bomb threat
- jameskilton 14y agoIt's not just Austin: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19602986 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19602986 I've heard from a friend in Austin that this is a hoax. Sounds like this might be related to the anti-Islam film.
- brianfryer 14y agoYikes! Looks like I'll take Mopac into downtown today. Hope the threat doesn't amount to anything...
- jmsduran 14y agoWhat perplexes me is that the threat was called in at around 8:30 am and claimed bombs will go off around 10 am. UT made the decision to evacuate at 9:53 am, 7 minutes before the called threat. Is 7 minutes an ample amount of time to evacuate a campus this large?
- teach 14y agoIt's almost certainly a hoax, of course. I'm fairly certain there's never been a bomb threat on an American school where there turned out to be an actual bomb. Not once in any school in the United States, ever in the entire history of the nation. I've really looked for a counterexample, but I haven't found any. If any of you have one, I'd love to hear it.
- MattRogish 14y agoIt seems remarkably easy and consequence-free to disrupt major institutions like universities, sporting events, etc. The answer probably isn't to ignore the threat, but it seems there's gotta be a better solution than shutting the entire thing down. Maybe not.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- davidrupp 14y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre
- teach 14y agoThis is a ridiculously-poor example. The Columbine shooting didn't involve a planted bomb, and there wasn't a phone call in advance. The boys just showed up to school shooting.
- davidrupp 14y agoDid you read the article? "Upon their arrival at Columbine, the duo met near Harris's car and armed two 20 pound (9 kg) propane bombs before entering the cafeteria a few minutes prior to the beginning of the A lunch shift, placing the duffel bags containing the bombs inside. Each bomb was set to explode at approximately 11:17 a.m.[4] However, a custodian removed the security camera video tape, rewound it, and placed a new tape into the slot just as the duo entered the cafeteria. Though the act of placing the bombs was not recorded, just as the new tape was started, the bags were clearly visible. Klebold and Harris then returned to their vehicles to await the explosion of the bombs they had planted."
- davidrupp 14y ago"The pair hoped that after setting off home-made explosives in the cafeteria at the busiest time of day, killing many hundreds of students, they would use their guns to shoot survivors as they fled from the school. Then, as police vehicles, ambulances, fire trucks, and reporters came to the school, bombs set in the boys' cars would detonate, killing the emergency personnel, media, and law enforcement officers; this original plan backfired when the explosives did not detonate."
- teach 14y agoYes, I'm pretty familiar with Columbine. What you seemed to have missed in my question were the words "bomb threat". When has anyone called a school and said "I've planted a bomb" and then a bomb ended up actually being there? I assert never.
- cobrausn 14y agoNorth Dakota State University has been evacuated as well. http://www.chron.com/communityblogs/atmosphere/article/North-Dakota-State-evacuated-3865583.php http://www.chron.com/communityblogs/atmosphere/article/North...
- driverdan 14y agoWhy is this on HN? Hoaxes like this happen daily.
- mikeyouse 14y agoI presume because it happened 3-days after 9/11 and the bomber/hoaxer claimed to be with Al Queda.
- smcguinness 14y agoWe had a discussion about this about how often bomb threats get made to universities. I felt as if this was a rare thing, which is why, IMO, when it does happen the news picks it up. However, my coworker thought that it does happen often, but is curious as to how they then distinguish between what might be legitimate and what they immediately think is a hoax. Then we both thought, if you do want to make a bomb threat, how do you decide who to call? Deans office? Football Coach? Ombudsman?
- teach 14y agoI'm at a public school in suburban Austin, and we get probably one bomb threat a year (that I know about). We evacuate for each one, unfortunately.
- enraged_camel 14y agoBruce Schneier wrote an excellent piece about this very topic back in April. It's worth a read: http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/04/bomb_threats_as.html http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/04/bomb_threats_a... (Reader comments are great, too.)