Larsen bomb threat a miscommunication

Health Services received a suspicious phone call at 9:55 a.m. Friday, Oct. 9. Though the exact conversation remains unknown, sometime during the call a miscommunication occurred, sparking a flurry of response from Luther and the Decorah community.

A staff member at Health Services perceived the call to be a potential bomb threat and notified Luther Security, which immediately enacted precautionary measures. Larsen Hall, including Health Services, the Study Abroad office, and counseling services was evacuated and Luther’s emergency response and notification system was activated.

“Decorah Police and Fire Departments were contacted and provided tremendous assistance in the evacuation and sweep of the building as well as the subsequent investigation… as soon as the building was cleared an all-clear message was sent out to the campus community,” Campus Security said in a release.

Automated warning and evacuation orders were sent via text message and cell phone call to students and staff directly linked to Larsen, though other students received the warnings as well.

“I was actually on my way down to the weight room at the time of the call,” Justin Tigerman, RA on Larsen Third West, said. “I wasn’t really fazed at that point.”

Although the situation was ultimately a miscommunication, administrators treated the threat as they would any other. Amy Smith, Larsen/Olson area coordinator, was notified about the threat 15 minutes after it was confirmed and helped in the response. According to Smith, response procedures do not greatly differ depending on the location of the threat.

“In our usual process… we’ll ask whoever is in the building to pull the fire alarm just to get students out of the hall,” Smith said. “We’ll call 911 and then we might have people familiar with the building go in. There are different procedures, but generally speaking they are all pretty similar.”

Little is being said about the phone call itself, other than that it has been confirmed a miscommunication. Neither the student’s name nor further consequences have been released. Harri noted, however, that the situation is still cause for evaluation.

“As with any incident, staff will take time to evaluate the response and the protocol to assess its effectiveness,”
Harri said.