Police Officials Declare University of St. Thomas Campus Safe After Bomb Threats
ByUniversity of St. Thomas officials have declared the campus to be safe after two separate false bomb threats prompted the evacuation of the university early Thursday. The classes, however, were resumed by afternoon.
Apparently, a university employee received a bomb threat on email for the Doherty Library around 8 a.m., and a second threat was sent to Harris County Sheriff's Office around 10 a.m.
The university, therefore, had to cancel its classes for the rest of the day following the two threats to the campus.
Doherty Library and Link-Lee Mansion were evacuated and searched completely by Houston Police Department's bomb-sniffing dogs and K9 units. They uncovered no suspicious devices after conducting an extensive search of the two buildings and rest of the campus.
Officer Richard Still said that pranks such as this waste valuable manpower that could be used elsewhere.
Currently, they are investigating the matter and trying to find out the person or persons behind the hoax bomb threats. The officials said that the guilty will be arrested and charged.
The Robert Pace and Ada Mary Doherty Library is one of the premier research libraries in Houston comprising of over 230,000 books and 30,000 periodicals.
The library has therefore achieved an "A" rating from the American Library Association, which is considered as the highest rating for a library.
The University of St. Thomas, founded in 1947, is a Catholic university featuring many historic buildings such as Link-Lee House, which is currently used as the University's executive office, and Hughes House, being utilised as the Theology department.