Is closing the college the correct response? No direct threat of violence that I have read. Better to be safe, but this seems extreme.
Yikes! My D was accepted there and considered attending.
Not that it can’t happen at any school, but at least now she’s within just a few hours’ drive, if we had to go get her.
They actually asked local residents to take in international students and those who could not easily travel home.
This person attended a high school near where I live and they had secured the school yesterday.
I think it’s over the top but I imagine parents being up in arms if this threat existed and nothing was done.
Quite sad really since the odds of random gun violence are still incredibly low.
This person is likely a much bigger threat to himself than anyone else.
I find it incredibly sad that this student had easy access to a gun when he already had an encounter with the law about having one in the wrong place.
Wow–that’s awful. I went to Washington College for two years–cannot imagine anything like this.
My D considered applying here for next year, 2016-17, but decided it’s too far away from home (in the Midwest.)
One thing we noticed about it’s location on the map is that it seems to be an island-type peninsula, and seems kind of isolated from the mainland and Baltimore, and anywhere else across the bay. It seems like it would be easy to get stuck there - without a car, transit, in traffic across the bay, etc. and would be time-consuming to leave and travel elsewhere…
That’s just the thought we had when D and I looked at it on the map…
So… it would be scary to be in that type of location, with a potentially armed person on the loose,
and feel trapped. And maybe that’s one reason they evacuated?
it really doesn’t feel “off the mainland” when you’re there. The peninsula is very wide. You can drive north to PA or NJ, or slightly northwest to Baltimore, west to Alexandria/DC across the Bay Bridge, or South through VA across the Chesapeake Bay bridge-tunnel. (or the ferry from Delaware to Cape May.)
The campus is in a rural area, but the access to anywhere else really isn’t an issue.
Its no different than central PA or any other rural area.
This is an overreaction. Sometimes the real risk is not thought through, and this seems to be one of them. Does evacuating the school somehow keep the surrounding town, which includes off campus students, magically safe? I can see it now. “Campus boundary thwarts student unwilling to cross”
If there is concern about the guy showing up, there should be some means of dealing with this without a full evacuation. Perhaps just not having classes for a few days to allow those who feel compelled to leave to do so.
Remaining closed until after Thanksgiving.
http://touch.baltimoresun.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-85076310/
This is most likely a very scary situation for the students at the college, and for their parents and the faculty. However, please do not pass judgment on the student and the family. This boy is from the community where I live, so there has been a lot of information, let alone speculation about what has occurred. The devastated family has received an outpouring of support for their missing (only) child, who was apparently collecting antique guns, and had been suspended from college. He is most likely a danger to himself, and it is terrifying to think of what may likely occur. No one knows the full story, so the college apparently took a very conservative and cautious approach. This boy’s history shows no pattern of previous violence.
Everyone in the community is hoping and praying for a positive outcome.
I thought at first that a one-armed student had gone missing.
Unfortunately this ended with a very sad outcome:
http://www.washcoll.edu/live/news/8305-campus-closed-due-to-threat
http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2015/11/21/police-missing-washington-college-student-found-dead/
So sad. . .but I am not too surprised once I followed the story. He grew up near where I live and it sounded exactly like a despondent kid, not a “loner” who would bring harm to a campus. So sorry for his parents.
Very sad outcome. Sounds like a situation where things snowballed a bit - but still could have been resolved. I wish he had given his parents and friends a chance to help him catch his breath, take some time off and then rebuild.
I have a family farm very close to the college, and never once thought he was going to come to the town or college to harm anyone either. Now that they have released more info about events leading up to the gun-waving at the frat house I believe the whole situation could have been handled much better. This is so incredibly sad.
Very sad but completely predictable and almost certainly avoidable.