.jpg)
Students and staff at Washington and Lee University were under a shelter-in-place order for nearly four hours last Wednesday while police swept the school, following a potential threat to campus.
“This afternoon Washington and Lee received notice of a possible threat of violence on campus, prompting the university to issue a shelter-in-place order while law enforcement conducted a comprehensive search of campus as a precaution,” wrote Sidney Evans, vice president of student affairs, in a letter released late Wednesday evening.
“There was no violent incident, and no active threat was found by law enforcement during their investigation.”
The shelter-in-place order was issued at 3:45 and not lifted until 7:23. During that period, local, regional and state police searched the school.
The shelter-in-place order covered both the undergraduate and law schools at W&L.
While Virginia Military Institute notified its cadets as the situation progressed, the school did not go into lockdown, according to Col
, page 14 William Wyatt, director of communications. “VMI was never locked down. We notified via email our cadets, faculty, and staff of the police activity at 4:26 p.m.,” he told The News-Gazette. “We updated them again at 4:39 p.m. after law enforcement advised there was ‘no active violence’ at W&L.”
In a letter released on Thursday, W&L’s president, William Dudley, said the threat was not specific or targeted.
“The directive to shelter in place was the result of an anonymous communication alleging a general threat to campus. The communication did not target a specific individual or location,” he wrote.
The letter continues: “At this time, we have no reason to think that the communication came from a member of the campus community or that it was related to a separate incident reported at Davidson Park involving fireworks, which were initially reported as possible gunfire.”
While Dudley did not specify the nature of the threat, at a Lexington City Council meeting Thursday night, City Manager Jim Halasz described the incident as a bomb threat.
“We all know that yesterday, we did have a bomb threat at the W&L campus. Numerous law enforcement agencies and units responded, the university had a shelter-in-place order, and after several hours of searching for bombs on campus, there were none found, luckily,” he told Council.
“Unfortunately, earlier in the afternoon there was also a report of shots fired on East Washington Street in the area of the fraternities in that area. And again, at that point in time, our regional law enforcement units, working as a team, came out to investigate based on protocols that are in place today. They were ready for action, if you will. Luckily, we found, again, there was no threat. It was probably some of our fraternity men using firecrackers, and other than the noise, no harm was done.
“But I think both of these incidents indicate the true demonstration of professionalism, cooperation and collaboration that exists between all of our local law enforcement agencies and that we’re well served by these resources as a community,” Halasz said.
Not all members of the W&L community, however, felt well served by the university’s response, as students at the university’s law school found themselves sheltering in place in classrooms that didn’t lock.
“We all got an alert, and then administrators came and started moving us into classrooms; I was in the library in an open area. We were in there for about two hours, and they swept the rooms. There were state police coming through with their ARs, and they said, ‘You guys should really lock the doors,’ and we couldn’t lock them,” said Anika Maan, a law student.
“That’s a huge problem in lockdowns. Students had to put belts around the doors, but you could still open them. These are the classrooms, and the mock trail room, these are the rooms that students sit and learn in,” she said.
“At what point do you make the decision, yes I know it’s expensive, but it’s a safety issue, especially in this day and age.”
The concern about doors on some law school classrooms not having locks on them was also raised in a letter to the editor this week. The student newspaper Ring-tum Phi also reported concerns from undergraduate students about rooms that could not be locked.
A spokeswoman for the university could not be reached for a response about those concerns.
Since its investigation into the incident is ongoing, the Lexington Police Department referred all questions about the incident to the W&L communications office.
In his Thursday letter, Dudley wrote, “As law enforcement is continuing its investigation, the university will not be sharing additional details about this matter.”
He continued, “I can assure you that we take all safety concerns very seriously. We work closely with our local, regional, and state law enforcement partners to monitor and investigate potential threats and communicate relevant information to our community, and we are grateful for their swift response.”
