Threats cannot be ignored

A student grumbled at a table in Broome Community College's cafeteria on Wednesday, Feb. 13. It was the second time his class was canceled because of a bomb threat.

He studied with a friend, tried to make up for lost class time, and hoped his next class wouldn't be canceled. Other students were a lot more upset about the science building's evacuation -- they were missing an exam.

Since then, more bomb threats caused school officials to clear the entire Front Street campus. More lost class time. More missed exams. These bomb threats waste not only students' time, but their money, too.

When I was in high school, occasional bomb threats were an almost welcome break. We didn't take them seriously and didn't mind missing classes once in a while. We didn't pay for the classes -- taxpayers did.

We weren't worried about failing exams because of lost class time. Teachers always gave us leeway. If threats were made more than a couple days in a row, we got annoyed, but otherwise, it wasn't a major concern. (Looking back on it, it should have been.)

It's much different for BCC's 5,800 students, many of whom pay full tuition out of their own pockets. Professors can't give them the leeway high school teachers could -- especially when it happens four times. And bomb threats aren't necessarily empty threats perpetrated by foolish teen-agers anymore.

Since the tragedy at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., since the string of school attacks including the attempted one in Elmira, since Sept. 11, we must take threats seriously. We don't have the time or patience to deal with pranksters' antics anymore.

Binghamton University criminology professor Richard Wright told Press & Sun-Bulletin reporter Kelly Griffith that the person or people responsible for the threats may be employees or students who feel somehow slighted. Or the threats could just be pranks. Either way, the threats are unacceptable. The effects on the students' education and mental well-being are too serious to take lightly the petty revenge of some overgrown child.

Wright went on to tell Griffith that when he was in college in Texas, bomb threats became so commonplace that the university stopped evacuating students and faculty when threats were received. Students and professors were given the choice to leave or stay. Some BCC students expressed interest in having the same choice. That, too, is unacceptable.

Even though the empty threats are annoying, the students' safety must not be compromised. The college and its students shouldn't become apathetic to the threats. Each threat should be taken seriously because each threat could be serious. If the college and the students let down their guard, there could be deadly consequences. As unlikely as that seems after four empty threats, it is possible.

The only acceptable solution is to find the person or people responsible for the threats and stop them. The threats are a felony-level crime, and the felons committing these crimes need to be punished.

If you have any information about the threats, don't hesitate to call the Broome County Sheriff Department's tip line at 778-1196. If the education and safety of the BCC students isn't motivation enough, think about the tax dollars going toward investigating the threats.