As colleges nationwide have faced false shooter hoaxes, swatting threats and other malicious pranks, Lafayette College is sticking to protocol.
“The key in my mind is always to confirm what’s being reported to us,” Director of Public Safety Jeff Troxell said.
Whether the Public Safety department puts out an emergency notice or executes a certain police response is dependent on the credibility of the threat, according to Troxell.
The college, in the event of a believed emergency, will put out a Leopard Alert and quickly send officers to the area, Troxell explained. If the emergency is not credible, Troxell said, “we can determine that rather quickly.”
“We may not put out an alert, but we may work with communications to put out a courtesy email, just to let people know that it was a hoax,” he said.
“If it’s general and it doesn’t pinpoint where the issue is, we’ll respond, but we’re trying to determine what has happened,” he continued. “What do we know? Are there any other clues that we can gain from either the caller or the information that’s provided to us?”
On top of Public Safety dispatchers, a crisis management team organized in 2023 maintains a technical group, a safety group and a communication group that promptly responds to emergencies.
Earlier that year, the college locked down for over an hour after an Easton shooting; city officials lost track of the suspect, precipitating a Leopard Alert text to all students. Two follow-up texts were sent by Public Safety to the campus, and a final text lifted the campus lockdown.
If there is a threat — real or fake — all of the Public Safety dispatchers are certified in crisis communication by the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials.
“They’re trained to collect that information,” Troxell said of the dispatchers.
Colleges and universities across the country, from nearby Villanova University to faraway Northern Arizona University, experienced a sudden rise in false threats at the start of the fall semester.
According to a study by Campus Safety Magazine, 45 colleges faced these threats between the start of the academic year and Sept. 12. The FBI, addressing a rise in these hoaxes, wrote in a statement that people should “remain vigilant and immediately report anything they consider suspicious to law enforcement.”
The magazine also estimated that the threats have cost universities nationwide around $62 million.
In the Lehigh Valley, two Allentown schools, Allen High School and Trexler Middle School, have faced a total of three hoax threats in September. A police representative from the district could not be reached for comment.
