Student Art Project Causes Bomb Scare
Posted on March 29, 2008 in Offbeat
A University of North Florida student’s art project led to a partial evacuation of the campus Thursday.
According to school officials, a campus police officer discovered the first of four suspicious packages near the campus bookstore at approximately 11 a.m. Three more packages were discovered at various locations on campus.
All of the surrounding buildings were promptly evacuated and everyone in the area was removed.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Bomb Squad was called in and deemed the packages safe after examining them with X-rays.
The packages were black boxes with a telephone on top and wiring and a CD player on the inside. They were mounted on various campus structures, and according to some individuals, a recording would play if you picked up and listened to the telephones.
A UNF student later informed police that the packages were a part of a class art project.
For some students, the incident has prompted several questions.
Though the school website was updated with a notice of the evacuations and e-mails were sent out to students, most students found out by word-of-mouth or via television news.
That doesn’t sit well with many students, who have been told of a supposed phone alert system which would call or text message students’ cell phones with emergency notifications. That system was conspicuously absent during Thursday’s events.
Many also wonder why police were not notified of the packages beforehand by the art student and professor.
However, word has spread around campus that the student and professor did in fact contact the University Police Department prior to putting the boxes in place, and it was an internal communication failure by police which caused the scare.
Despite the criticisms, it is important to give the campus police credit where it is due. Once the packages were discovered, the necessary areas were evacuated very quickly, and no one would have been killed or injured had the packages been dangerous.
After all, keeping people safe is the number one priority in an emergency.
Update: a picture of one of the four suspicious packages can be seen at The Spinnaker
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I understand the level of paranoia that may come with a “package” with a “phone” just sitting somewhere. (Any pics of that, Evan?) I have to say, though, that this is one of those “Control is an illusion” things.
Everyone is told “don’t talk to strangers” and people are flabbergasted when “Uncle Bob” rapes his 7-year-old niece. “Uncle Bob” isn’t a stranger, so how does that whole “don’t talk to them” thing work?
Any bomber with a brain is not going to put a “suspicious package” anywhere for anyone to see. The witch-hunt continues until the paranoia subsides.
I mean, for example, McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario has its own nuclear reactor. Does anyone pull the DefCon 4 lever anytime someone goes near it? If someone was actually making a “dirty bomb”there, would anyone really know? (Of course, now, someone will read this and there’ll be a task force lookin’ for WMD’s in Canada…which they won’t find, LOL.)
The child molesters and rapists don’t walk around in a black trench coat and a fedora…
Explosive devices, ACME or not, do not have a wind-up alarm clock (or a phone) on them…
That guy you see behind the bush? Sometimes, that guy is hiding FROM you.
***
I guess in the end I have to agree, better safe than sorry. What, exactly, was this art project trying to convey/perform/state?
I’ve updated the article with a photo of one of the packages.
The goal of the assignment, or so I’ve heard, is to ‘elicit reactions from passersby.’
I think the student earned an ‘A’ on principle alone.
I thought my RSS reader wasn’t working, or I screwed up the address.
Are you busy, too? ;)