Social Media Scare: Campus Reaction and What’s to Come

The Situation:

Last night, Oct. 4, 2015 at 8:49 p.m., a Tweet was posted on EvCC’s official Twitter, which read, “We’ve seen posts warning EvCC students not to come to school tomorrow. Police are investigating. If you know anything, call 911 ASAP.”

 

In light of some recent high school and college emergencies, specifically the MPHS shooting last October, and the recent Umpqua Community College shooting, this Tweet quickly gained traction and has 235 re-tweets as of press time.

 

At 9:03 p.m., another Tweet was sent from EvCC’s official Twitter that read “No direct threat to EvCC that we know of. We just want you to be aware that we know and police know.”

 

With this Tweet began the questions from concerned students: should they or should they not attend school today? What is going on? Should they really go to class if this situation is still under investigation?

 

During this time, a police report surfaced on the social media sites, with more information about the situation. It is unclear who originally shared the Mukilteo Police Department’s report, but EvCC is making sure that it is taken off all comment streams on their official channels.

 

EvCC worked on their social media sites as rumors began to surface, in order to clarify to students and concerned community members that there were “no direct threats to EvCC.” They also replied to concerned students, saying that it was their choice to come to class tomorrow or not, but classes are still scheduled.

 

This morning at 6:31 a.m., EvCC Tweeted once more saying “Good morning. EvCC is open today. Here’s the latest: ‪http://bit.ly/1LdKCso .” The link to the official article posted by EvCC is in the Tweet.

 

 

What the police say:

 

     Mukilteo Police Department’s Crime Prevention Officer, Colt Davis, said “On October 1st 2015, Officers contacted a female Everett Community College student who received some suspicious private Facebook messages.  The female reported that the messages were from a former classmate whom she had attended Everett Community College with.  The female reported that she had not had any contact with the former classmate for over a year, until she received the messages the previous day.

 

Officers reviewed the messages and determined that no direct threats were made to the female or any other organization.  However, the case was assigned to Detectives on October 2nd 2015 to make contact with the male and determine why he sent the messages.

 

Mukilteo and Everett Detectives made contact with the former male classmate who wrote the messages on Oct. 5 2015.  During their contact, they learned that the male did not have any access to weapons and his messages were taken out of context.  The male stated that he was not trying to cause any alarm to the community or the female he wrote the messages to.

 

Detectives determined that no crime was committed, but the report has been forwarded onto the FBI for informational purposes given the recent events in Roseburg, Oregon and Philadelphia.”

 

EvCC’s Director of Campus Safety and Emergency Management, Mark Tolle, said that Everett Police Department will be on campus here for the next week at least, if not longer, for precautionary purposes. “It is better to be safe than sorry,” said Tolle. He also said that Everett Police will have an announcement on this situation, as soon as they can.    

 

 

What students have to say:

 

Student Sebastian says “the way I see it, one wacko that thinks something bad is going to happen, doesn’t specifically mean it’s going to be on our campus…Everett is full of weirdos. The way I see it, it was a rumor mill.”

 

Student Lauren Hansen says “I didn’t want fear to get in the way of my education…if we let fear win, then we’re letting the guy (win)…I heard there was a lot of security on campus today, so I felt comfortable, relatively.” Hansen’s parents were concerned about her coming to school, because her brother was a student at Marysville Pilchuck, and because of the recent shootings in Oregon. “We trusted the school that they wouldn’t let students come to school if there was a real safety threat.”

 

Student Viktoriya Nikitenko, who is also a school employee, said, “While I was working today…and we stayed in the office and locked the door. Most people don’t check their emails anymore, and I don’t have EvCC on Facebook, so I didn’t know about this until I got here.” She said that had she known what was going on, she probably wouldn’t have come to campus.

 

Kihyon Rho, EvCC Student, “After all the announcements from EvCC students were still terrified and the one thing I was really pissed about was EvCC should not have said ‘It’s up to you’ that one word made me so uncomfortable because EvCC should have made clear and solid decisions at that moment.”

 

 

What counselors have to say:

 

The counseling office is one of the few places on campus in which students can be reassured strict confidentiality. There are very few instances in which as a counselor they would break that confidentiality, according to Brett Kuwada, EvCC counselor and Human Development instructor. They have trained professionally and have been licensed by the state of Washington.

 

They are here to talk about anything that affects the students and this can range from personal to crisis topics to academic and career. They are available to talk about urgent situations that do not require calling 911. Our counselors are here to help as best they can through conversation and directing you to the best services.

 

You can find the Counseling and Student Success office in Parks Student Union on the third floor, and call and make an appointment ahead of time or drop by the office, sign in and wait your turn.

 

 Q&A with John Olson, Vice President for College Advancement and Executive Director of the EvCC Foundation:

Why did EvCC handle the situation the way they did?

We handle situations like this in a very case by case manner. We take into account student privacy (there was a current student involved in this, as well as a former student). We work with the police department and listen to their advice. We discuss options, draw on our experience, and make the decisions we do based on a combination of factors. In this case, there was no direct threat to the college, so we chose to remain open.

Why weren’t classes cancelled?

No direct threat to EvCC was included in the Facebook posts in question. No indication was given that the general population was at risk to the level that would have necessitated a decision to cancel classes.

What pre-cautions can we take as students?

Be aware of your surroundings. Report any suspicious activity. Be prepared to call 911 in an emergency situation. Sign up for emergency alerts (see our webpage at everettcc.edu/emergency). Read the emergency management sheets posted in every classroom on campus. Participate actively in lock-down drills, fire drills, and other emergency trainings as appropriate.

Did EvCC improve security today? If so how and will that continue?

We added staff and made improvements in our security prior to today. I won’t go into the details other than to say that our security personnel work hard to collaborate with law enforcement; they undergo training in emergency management and incident response, and are experienced in a variety of enforcement and reporting functions. We are realistic in the sense that no campus is 100% secure, but every campus security staff, including ours, works toward making it as safe as possible.

If something had happened what security measures are on campus on a daily basis?

We have an emergency management plan in place that provides general guidance for managing the campus in case of an unplanned incident. This includes a variety of functions from initial reporting, collaboration with local law enforcement, communication with students and staff, and a host of other procedures. Our leadership team practices using case studies and table-top exercises, and each building has a building captain trained in emergency response.

What are students expected to do in case of emergencies?

Students are expected to follow the general guidelines as outlined in the emergency management booklets on the walls of every classroom. No specific step-by-step instructions will work in every situation, so students need to recognize that each situation will be different. There are some basic things we want students to be able to do – call 911, assist when asked, follow directions from first responders, provide input if they have a particular skill or expertise, and avoid making the situation more difficult for the emergency personnel who will be there to handle things.

Counseling & Student Success

Parks Student Union-Third Floor

(425) 388-9263, Option 2

Advising Center has moved

New location: Rainier Hall, Room 104

(425) 388-9339

Counseling & Student Success

Located in Parks Student Union, Third Floor

Front Desk Hours (Sept 21-Dec 10)

Monday: 9:00 – 6:30 pm

Tuesday-Thursday: 9:00 – 4:30 pm

Friday: 9:00 – 3:30 pm

Closed on Fridays from 11:00 – 1:00

 

 

At the moment, The Clipper has not been able to reach EvCC authorities who can answer the question of why classes weren’t cancelled. We will be updating this article as soon as we get this information.