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marlon.walker@newsobserver.com or (919) 836-4906
Staff writer Jesse James DeConto and news researcher Brooke Cain contributed to this report.
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FALSE REPORTS ON CAMPUSES
OCT. 7 -- An early-morning caller said a bomb was inside the cafeteria at Palomar College in San Marcos, Calif. The cafeteria, library, student union and several other buildings were evacuated before the call was determined to be a hoax.
OCT. 18 -- A Trenton man reported a shooting at The College of New Jersey's campus in Newark, N.J. Phone messages and e-mail messages were sent out to the campus community, telling people to stay inside during the investigation.
OCT. 23 -- A freshman at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., reported swastikas being written on her dormitory door. No known alert was sent to the campus community.
DEC. 14 -- Francisco Nava, a student at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J., said that he had been physically assaulted and that threatening e-mail had been sent to him. No known alert was sent to the campus community.
FEB. 19 -- The mother of a freshman quarterback at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Fla., said he had been robbed at gunpoint in his dorm room by three masked men.
MARCH 3 -- Matthew W. Haney said he spotted a gunman on the west end of campus at Appalachian State University in Boone. Classes that night were canceled. A campuswide alert was sent by e-mail.
MARCH 6 -- A woman claimed she was sexually assaulted at Duke University near Duke Hospital. E-mail alerts were sent to the campus community when the incident was reported and when the woman recanted.
MARCH 28 -- Brian Sharpe, a UNC senior, said he was attacked in an attempted robbery early that morning on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill. E-mail messages were sent to the campus community after the incident was reported and when the report was determined to be a hoax.
Memorial events mark Va. Tech shootings
On April 16, 2007, a mentally disturbed Virginia Tech student killed 32 students and faculty members before killing himself in the nation's deadliest shooting rampage. Memorial events, protests and vigils marking the one-year anniversary are scheduled for Wednesday at the Blacksburg, Va., campus and also in North Carolina.
Two events -- a midmorning remembrance ceremony and an evening candlelight vigil -- will take place on the Virginia Tech campus.
Gun control advocates in five North Carolina cities will stage protests with 32 demonstrators at each location, symbolizing the number murdered in the massacre. The protesters will lie on the ground for several minutes, signifying how little time it took for the shooter to buy his gun. The protests will be held at:
* Charlotte-32: noon, Tryon Street and East Sixth Street, southeast corner.
* Duke-32: noon, front steps of Duke Chapel at Duke University in Durham.
* UNC-Chapel Hill-32: noon, Polk Place near Gardner Hall at UNC.
* UNC-Wilmington-32: noon, Clock Tower at the Center of UNCW campus, 601 S. College Road.
* Winston-Salem-32: 10:30 a.m., Clock Tower at Winston-Salem State University.
(THE ASSOCIATED PRESS AND WWW.REMEMBRANCE.VT.EDU)
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Several weeks later, on March 3, Matthew Haney told authorities at Appalachian State University in Boone that he had seen a gunman near the west end of campus. Schools officials sent out a campus alert and canceled evening classes. Authorities later said he made the false accusations because he feared having to pay for damage to the front door at his campus apartment. Haney was charged with filing a false police report.Three days later, a woman told Duke University police officials she had been sexually assaulted near Duke Hospital. She later recanted, saying she had not even been near the campus at the time. Officials decided not to file charges against the woman.Duke officials sent an alert when the report was made, said Aaron Graves, Duke's associate vice president for safety and security. Another one went out after the woman recanted."We have to make an announcement when there is a significant event that is reported on campus," he said. "We sent out another one when she recanted. It takes some time to investigate and pull the facts together."Randy Young, spokesman for the UNC-CH Police Department, said though the first alert sent out was found to be inaccurate, he was pleased that investigators were able to check Sharpe's story."From our point of view, valid and verified information is what we want to put out, and in the end, that is what occurred," he said. "We're glad that information is out there in the hands of the university community. That supersedes anything. It's our primary goal."(Staff writer Jesse James DeConto and news researcher Brooke Cain contributed to this report.)
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