Children and babies wheeled away from McNeely Hall in wake of a bomb threat Wednesday. (Kat Barrett/TommieMedia)
A bomb threat called in to the St. Thomas switchboard Wednesday morning led the university to evacuate McNeely Hall and other campus buildings and cancel classes for the day.
Officials closed the university’s St. Paul campus at 11:42 a.m. An all-clear message was sent at 4:08 p.m.
According to an email sent by Public Safety late Wednesday afternoon, the campus switchboard received a call at 9:37 a.m. from a person claiming to have placed a bomb on campus. A second call was received at 10:10 a.m. naming McNeely Hall as the location.
A different building was named as the location for the threat after a third call, which resulted in officials closing the entire St. Paul campus as Public Safety began searching additional buildings.
“From language used by the caller, it was apparent our public alerts were being monitored, so we began using alternate methods of communication,” Public Safety stated in a university-wide email.
Junior Casja Weber said she was in McNeely Hall when the alert was sent out.
“We got out of the building immediately, and when we got to ASC, there was no person who was telling us what to do other than the text messages that we got,” Weber said.
No suspicious objects were found, and an all-clear was issued at 4:08 p.m. However, the St. Paul campus remained closed until Thursday.
Public Safety sent out its first bomb threat alert at 10:18 a.m., saying “evacuate this building (McNeely) and the surrounding buildings.” Students, faculty and staff were instructed to go to the John Roach Center and the Anderson Student Center.
Summit and Grand avenues were blocked off, and police officers, including the St. Paul Police bomb squad, were on the scene moments after. According to the alert, the FBI was consulted.
Students were seen leaving the building and heading across the street to JRC and other campus buildings. The Child Development Center also was evacuated. 
Police officers and St. Paul Police bomb squad arrive at McNeely Hall. (Isa Tine/TommieMedia)
A university-wide email after the alert was cancelled said students in the residence halls were notified that “no direct threats” were issued to the halls.
“Students responded calmly, followed directions from university officials and made decisions regarding whether or not to stay on campus,” the email said.
The St. Thomas threat occurred nearly 20 years to the day, April 20, that 12 students and a teacher were killed and 20 wounded by two students with guns at Columbine High School in Colorado.
Weber said she saw Public Safety on the scene and heard sirens as she left McNeely Hall.
“Everyone’s just pretty shaken up about it,” she said.
Zekriah Chaudhry can be reached at chau6735@stthomas.edu.
I am very personally affected by this article as my child goes to the Child Development Center and is pictured in the photograph associated with this article:
https://www.tommiemedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/CDC_Kids-1.jpg
This photo shows a very competent staff ensuring the safety of very small and vulnerable children. What this article does not talk about his how St Thomas is closing the Child Development Center in June 2019. If St. Thomas is so proud of the staff members as to use them as the image of an effective and competent response to a crisis, where is the reporting that St. Thomas also devalues this program will close the Child Development Center?
In the end it seems St Thomas is trying to have it both ways by using an image of the Child Development Center staff acting competently while omitting the fact that these very same staff will lose their jobs.
I request you do additional reporting on the closure of the Child Development Center. If this is not going to happen, I request you change the photograph to St Thomas building new buildings or other such things that are more in line with the organization’s values. St Thomas has made it very clear the organization does not concern itself with children, families, and/or community engagement with the neighborhood as evidenced by the decision to close the Child Development Center.
Why did it take Public Safety 41 minutes to send an alert to the community after the first threat? And 8 minutes to send an alert to students once the second threat specified the location? Had the threat been a real emergency, those 8 minutes could have been a disastrous delay.