Threats close several Ill. schools, colleges

CHICAGO -- Graffiti scrawled in a St. Xavier University bathroom reading "Be prepared to die on 4/14" resulted in empty campuses Monday not only at the college, but at four nearby elementary and high schools.

Chicago's Malcolm X College evacuated students and canceled daytime classes after a similar threat was found in a campus bathroom. And Michigan's Oakland University also was closed because of threatening graffiti mentioning April 14.

The closures -- just two days before the anniversary of the Virginia Tech killings and exactly two months after the deadly rampage at Northern Illinois University -- illustrate a major challenge facing school administrators, who have to decide just how seriously to take such threats.

"I can see why they're doing it for the safety of the kids. But I see it as over the top," said Lynn Ruggiero, whose daughter is a freshman at one of the high schools that shares a campus with Xavier and closed Monday.

Ruggiero said she figures whoever wrote the threat "is getting a certain satisfaction," from putting thousands of Chicago students out of class. Still, she knows school officials have a hard time pleasing everyone.

"If they hadn't closed, people would have said, 'How come you didn't?'"

St. Xavier University and Malcolm X College are about 15 miles apart, and despite what was described as "basically" the same wording in the threats, there was no indication the incidents were related, according to Chicago police spokeswoman Monique Bond.

The graffiti at St. Xavier -- the second of two threats found since April 5 -- was widely publicized over the weekend, and also contained in updates the college placed on its Web site.

While St. Xavier decided Friday to close its campuses until further notice, classes at Malcolm X resumed late Monday afternoon. Bond said bomb-sniffing dogs from the Chicago Police Department were taken through Malcolm X, but campus police made the final decision about when to open campus.

Oakland University, an 18,000-student state university located about 20 miles north of Detroit, planned to resume classes today.

The graffiti that prompted its shutdown also made a reference to "4/14" but didn't threaten a specific type or time of an attack, said university spokesman Ted Montgomery.

Montgomery said unfortunately, such security events have become commonplace in the educational sphere.

"It's just part of the deal these days," he said.

School administrators' decisions about handling threats can be made easier by having a plan in place should a crisis arise, said Larry Consalvos, senior vice president at iXP Corp., a security consulting firm which works with universities on campus safety.

Knowing how they'll deal with the chain of command, first responders, communication and alarm systems is vital, Consalvos said, and allows administrators to decide "is it prudent to move forward and have classes in session, or might it be better to shut down for a few days?"

"I don't think you can be cavalier about the seriousness of any threat," Consalvos said.

In Chicago, two elementary schools and two high schools near St. Xavier decided to cancel classes Monday after a Saturday morning meeting between school officials and the Chicago Police Department.

The fact that the threat mentioned a certain date helped administrators at Evergreen Park Southwest Elementary decide to shut down, said district superintendent Craig Fiegel. Other schools in the district canceled outdoor recess and PE classes Monday.

Still, Fiegel called such violent graffiti "the new bomb threat," remembering a time in the 1960s when bomb threats were regularly used to close down institutions.

And he worries the closures could encourage other people who get a kick out of causing chaos.

"At what point is it serious and at what point do you have to go on with it?" Fiegel said.

At Malcolm X College on Monday afternoon, Edelena Lee was one of a number of students arriving for class who had not heard of the threat, or that the school had been locked down.

Despite disappointment that she may have wasted a trip to campus, she had no problem with the decision to close the school.

"I think people have issues nowadays," said Lee, 30. "You can never bee too cautious."

Other students agreed, particularly after a gunman opened fire and killed five students before killing himself in February at NIU, about 65 miles west of Chicago.

"It's a great thing to do after what happened," said Natasia Jackson, a 20-year-old nursing student. "Taking precautions instead of waiting until something is to happen."