Friday, September 07, 2007
Feds Probe CMU Bomb Threat
kdka.com: "The FBI says the message indicated a backpack would be randomly placed on the campus, but no one got the message because it came over the holiday weekend."
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13 comments:
I was unaware that students and staff could sign up for text messages from school for emergencies. While it seems like a good idea, it promotes a bit of paranoia that may be a bit more than healthy.
On a related note, it would seem that if the university has this alert system, it would seem it would have some type of scanning for threatening emails system as well...
At least we can be glad no one really did put a bomb on campus. Honestly, it's really embarrassing that we didn't get it until the next day. I'm sure the alert system is great and all, but all I've ever heard about it is how annoying it is to get a call at 6 in the morning informing you that water to campus has been restored.
This system is a little problematic. One reason being what Chapel mentioned. It's really a good system and I appreciated knowing what was going on but I feel there should be some sort of ranking system for alerts so that knowing that the water pipe was fixed and water is useable again isn't a 4 o'clock in the morning alert like it was. A bomb threat is different for obvious reasons.
Though it may seem unnecessary to some that the FBI is involved in the bomb threat, I think it's about time. This hasn't been the first bomb threat this semester or throughout the time I've been in school here so if whoever is sending the e-mails is finally caught maybe they'll stop. Additionallly, I feel the magnitude of the problem has died down due to it's frequency. I feel like I've gotten a bomb threat e-mail at least 5 times this semester so when I read them I don't really place much importance on it.
txt messaging would be great, you can't always take a phone call, but you can sneak a look at a txt. and they should only send alerts during campus hours (8am - ...)
bomb threat via email... over a weekend? sounds like some bored (insert obvious major here) student to me...
I must say school security is a bit odd. I was at the hospital tonight and they took my pocket knife. Now I pretty much always have one on me, and I don't think of it as a weapon, it's as a tool. On the other hand I walk all around campus with a knife and no one turns their head? Apparently email is more threatening than real life or something.
On another note we do go to a very good computer science school but apparently there is no automated system to pick out target words such as bomb or gun and flag the email? I'm sure homeland security already does the screening to a degree, and we should be hearing about this email sometime next year.
fvxpWhat is really pathetic is that the email wasn't read until the day after. Sure if was a holiday, but come on. The police don't just lay down their badges and go home for the long weekend. There really needs to be a way of tracking any kind of threatening information and have that sent to someone who would actually be around to read it.
I am very glad that CMU has at least installed some kind of emergency contact for students. But there really does need to be some kind of higher archy. We all check our email often enough that the water updates could have been over email. Or if the call at 6am was stating that campus was closed for the day because of the break. That way at least I don't go all the way into school if I didn't see the email heading.
I know some people find the whole thing annoying, but how can people not take this seriouosly? I don't mean you have to flip out about a bomb warning, but the school is keeping you informed. It is their responsibility to keep all of us safe as well as themselves (remember all the criticism at Virginia Tech?) They are giving you the ability to make an educated decision if you have to actually respond to an evacuation or a real threat. Universitys are just too big to practice fire drills every year. But I have definitely seen people who start walking INTO a building when the alarm is going off and don't figure it out that maybe this isn't a false alarm until they see everyone else walking towards the exits. Either this person wasn't ever informed about alarms or is just $%@#ing ignorant to their own surroundings.
At least school is trying to improve their safety system, and hey, nothing is ever perfect on the first try.
I would find a system of scanning emails an invasion of privacy. It is possible to use words like gun, bomb or kill in non threatening or non literal ways. I certainly wouldn't want a personal e-mail read over a joke or figure of speech. Moreover, it should be a faculty member's responsibility to check their e-mail over the weekends, even just to glance at subject headings. I personally check my e-mail several times a day and I'm no one important.
Additionally, I find all this brouhaha over bombs incredibly desensitizing. It frightens me more that the histeria bomb threats cause not only in the campus community but in the world at large will have a boy who cried wolf effect and someone will get hurt because the individual didn't take things seriously. At the same time it seems silly that someone who wants to stealthily hurt a large number of people would tell anyone about it.
I am happy to see CMU make improvements on its security and crisis management. Although we feel that precautions have been made to protect us, we unfortunately can never truly let our guard down. I am thankful that CMU understands the adjustments that need to be made, and have implemented as many productive systems as they can at the moment. I was also impressed that the same tactics were used to keep students updated on the water break. Information is key, and by keeping everyone informed is the best way to calm, and ultimately resolve. Kudos to those who are trying to keep us safe.
I am very glad that CMU treats these cases seriously. I agree that they should send out text messages instead of calling however.
It's very annoying though that this system has to be used for people who have nothing better to do than threaten a school. One day at my school someone sent a letter to the police station about a bomb scare at our school and they brought in metal detectors and we weren't allowed to bring back packs to school.
I think it's good how a lot of communities are creating safe ways to deal with things like this but it really bothers me that some sick individual has nothing better to do than threaten people and I hope they catch him.
I agree that it is so very annoying to receive calls at 4am in the morning about water, something that could wait till perhaps 8am.
My question here is why is there so many bomb threats? Is enough actions taken to prevent all these(even though it could be easier said than done)?
But I am still glad something is being done...
The fact is that all of these bomb threat messages are desensitizing people to the alert system. If something really happens, people are more likely to ignore the phone calls/voicemails now. I feel like CMU should do more to assure that the bomb threats are real before releasing the information to all of the students.
I'm not gonna lie, it's a good thing that they are reacting as strongly to these bomb threats as they are, as it's nice to know they take our safety seriously. But whoever keeps sending these threats (assuming it's the same person) really needs to be caught as it's getting annoying and if it turns out just to be some person who didn't want to take a test, I'm gonna be pretty pissed.
ok so the reason why i am writing on this one, though it is from a while back is because there was apparently yet another bomb threat today which was recieved from someones phone. I do think that the text messaging is a good idea however, I'm not sure if they are now just informing us of every little thing. I personally am not on the call list for this stuff but someone was telling me about how an ink cartridge box was reported as a bomb. It starts to get to a point where you wonder when security gets to be just too much... i do think we should be informed and maybe it is better to be more informed than less it just seems a little rediculous
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