College and School Campuses Throughout the Country Have Received Several Threats

April 19, 2007 — -- Since Monday's fatal shooting at Virginia Tech, there have been threats of similar attacks at school and college campuses throughout the United States. Thirty-three people were killed in the Virginia Tech massacre including the shooter, Seung-Hui Cho.

In a tape sent to NBC News, Cho expressed his admiration for Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, the young men responsible for killing 12 students at Columbine High School in Colorado on April 20, 1999. Similarly Harris had expressed admiration for the April 19, 1995, bombings in Oklahoma City.

Authorities are now wary of more copycats. Below is a compilation of the various threats since the Virginia Tech shootings from different news sources:

The Associated Press reports that schools in Yuba City, Ca., are a "lockdown" on Thursday after the county sheriff warned a man had threatened to go on a killing spree in locals schools. The Sutter County Sheriff's Department said on its Web site it had been warned that Jeffery Thomas Carney intended to make the mass slaying at Virginia Tech "look mild" and that he had said he was armed with an AK-47 rifle, improvised explosive devices and poison, and would seek to provoke a confrontation with police to "commit suicide-by-cop."

The Associated Press reported that a Huntersville, N.C., teenager shot and killed himself Wednesday shortly after pointing a handgun at two other students in a high school parking lot, according to police. Schools in Huntersville were locked down after 16-year-old Josh Emerson Cook made threatening gestures in a parking lot at North Mecklenburg High School, police said.

Cook, who attended the school, turned the gun on himself when police confronted him at a gas station, and later died. Every school in the area was locked down after the shooting.

The Associated Press reported that a college in Kalamazoo, Mich., has shut down its campus today after someone posted a threat on anonline blog. Police believe that they have the person responsible in custody.

The Associated Press reported that police in Tempe, Ariz., evacuated Corona del Sol High School after a suspicious package was found in arestroom.

ABC News reports that the entire Tenafly, N.J., school district, will be closed Friday due to information about a bomb threat made at Tenafly High School, the recent events at Virginia Tech and the anniversary date of the tragedy at Columbine High School.

The ABC News affiliate in Jacksonville, Fla., reported that a 14-year-old Bartram Trail High School student allegedly e-mailed a school threat to a friend. The threat claimed the boy would top the record of killing 33 people at school. A parent intercepted the e-mail and called police Wednesday morning. The student had apparently made similar threats several weeks ago that went unreported.

The Associated Press reported that in Michigan, two high schools were put on lockdown after the words "Virginia Tech" were found written on bathroom walls. Police planned to search all students and staff today. One message saying "Virginia Tech tomorrow" was found on a boys' bathroom ledge at Walled Lake Western High School. Another message, "Virginia Tech is coming," was written on a second-floor girls' bathroom wall at Walled Lake Central.

The Associated Press reported that Great Falls High School in Montana was locked down on Tuesday after the Virginia Tech shootings.

A threatening note was found in a girls' bathroom, school officials said. Earlier in the day, the school received several bomb threat phone messages. School officials traced the calls using caller ID, and police later cited Lester Beason, 27, for misdemeanor disorderly conduct. Authorities said Beason didn't intend to carry out the threats, but instead needed medication.

At the same high school, a student found the threatening note at 12:15 p.m. on a toilet paper dispenser in a girls' bathroom. The note said "the shooting would start at Great Falls High at 12:30 and it would be worse than Virginia Tech." The school was locked down within minutes. Police searched the building and found no firearms, and students were allowed back in.

The AP reported that students and employees at the University of California's Hastings College of the Law are now required to show identification before entering campus buildings after a possible threat of violence was posted on the Internet. Classes were canceled abruptly Wednesday, and faculty and students were sent home after the dean of the college said someone posted "copycat-type threat" on a discussion board.

The Associated Press reported that police arrested a 15-year-old Willamette High School sophomore today in Eugene, Ore., on assorted charges after a homemade bomb detonated in a hallway trash can.

In Nashville, Tenn., a high school senior was charged with reckless endangerment after police said he walked down a school hallway yelling: "Y'all better check my backpack and locker. I've got a gun and a knife and I'm gonna do what they did up at Virginia Tech."

The Boston Herald reported that a Stonehill College dorm in Easton, Mass., was evacuated Wednesday night after a student discovered five empty boxes used to package shotgun shells in a parking lot near a dorm. Students were allowed to return to the dorm in an hour, but were angry with the time it took school officials to respond to the threat.

The Boston Herald also obtained a police report that a part-time Boston University student who hosts a popular video game review show on an MTV Web site allegedly sent an e-mail threatening to kill an ex-girlfriend and recreate the Virginia Tech bloodshed at her school.

The Associated Press reported that a Maryland man was arrested after allegedly referring to the Virginia Tech massacre during an apparent threat to his child's elementary school. Larry Moore allegedly became agitated when the school asked for a doctor's note before excusing his child from school. He made multiple threats against the school and said that what happened at Virginia Tech could happen at Gaithersburg Elementary.

The Associated Press reported that Wednesday, police at the University of Minnesota evacuated a number of buildings on campus because of a bomb threat that afternoon. A bomb squad was on the scene with special equipment. University of Minnesota police say a note was found in a bathroom on campus. No devices were found and no injuries were reported. More than 50,000 students attend the University of Minnesota.

The Associated Press reported that Ohio State University assigned extra officers to patrol campus in the hours after the shootings at Virginia Tech in case of copycats, and schools across the state are reexamining whether they are ready to react to a campus gunman.

The Associated Press reported that parents withdrew hundreds of students from a high school and middle school in Bogalusa, La., Tuesday amid reports that a man had been arrested for allegedly approaching students at a bus stop and handing over a handwritten note alluding to the Virginia Tech massacre. Jerry Payne, superintendent of the Bogalusa city schools, said police arrested a 53-year-old man who allegedly handed the note to a student waiting for a bus to a private school in nearby Franklinton, La.

The Kansas City Star reported that school officials at Bishop Miege High School in Kansas City sent out a letter to parents and students Wednesday to defuse a rumor that school violence would break out at the school Friday, the anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings. It mentioned two metro area schools that closed last week because of false threats. It also said that the Virginia Tech shooting tragedy had contributed to the rumor mill.

The Associated Press reported that a former student of Hartselle High School in Hartselle, Ala., was arrested in South Carolina Wednesday because of a comment posted on a MySpace account. The school was on partial lockdown, meaning parents could check their kids out. Nearly half of the school's 900 students were checked out.