Student Implicated in Gossip Site Shooting Threat
Nick Sasso
Issue date: 3/27/08 Section: News
An e-mail from Campus Safety on Monday, March 10 brought fear and worry to many Colgate students as the threat of a possible campus shooting was exposed. The threat came from an anonymous post made on the JuicyCampus.com website, which was brought to the attention of Campus Safety. Within hours, local and state law enforcement agencies were at work with the University to track down the individual responsible for the post. In the early morning hours of Tuesday, March 11, Colgate junior George So was connected to the post and taken into custody by New York State Police.
The event began when sophomore Brittany Messenger discovered the post while doing research for a commentary about the website.
"I would have felt so guilty having read that and known that that post was made and something did happen," Messenger said, "so I called Campus Safety and they hadn't been alerted of that yet. I just saw it as a precautionary method to place the call."
The post, which was apparently designed to protest the controversial gossip website, read, "I wonder if i could shut down the school... By saying I´m going to shoot as many people as i can in my second class tomorrow, I hope I get more than 50........... For liability reasons and ip tracking I won't leave it at that. But seriously, this site is rediculous, if it got big, and someone put the effort into writing a big long serious suicide note informing all readers that he would kill over 100 kids, they could shut down the school. [sic]"
While students were notified and reassured through e-mail, behind the scenes Colgate wasted no time in investigating the matter. The University's Crisis Management Team, comprised of a handful of administrators, was assembled to coordinate a response.
"Very quickly that Monday afternoon we got together and came up with a plan," Vice-President and Dean of the College Charlotte Johnson said. "That plan essentially involved [Interim Director of Campus Safety] Dick Matte coordinating with local, state, and it ended up being federal law enforcement agencies."
The event began when sophomore Brittany Messenger discovered the post while doing research for a commentary about the website.
"I would have felt so guilty having read that and known that that post was made and something did happen," Messenger said, "so I called Campus Safety and they hadn't been alerted of that yet. I just saw it as a precautionary method to place the call."
The post, which was apparently designed to protest the controversial gossip website, read, "I wonder if i could shut down the school... By saying I´m going to shoot as many people as i can in my second class tomorrow, I hope I get more than 50........... For liability reasons and ip tracking I won't leave it at that. But seriously, this site is rediculous, if it got big, and someone put the effort into writing a big long serious suicide note informing all readers that he would kill over 100 kids, they could shut down the school. [sic]"
While students were notified and reassured through e-mail, behind the scenes Colgate wasted no time in investigating the matter. The University's Crisis Management Team, comprised of a handful of administrators, was assembled to coordinate a response.
"Very quickly that Monday afternoon we got together and came up with a plan," Vice-President and Dean of the College Charlotte Johnson said. "That plan essentially involved [Interim Director of Campus Safety] Dick Matte coordinating with local, state, and it ended up being federal law enforcement agencies."
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