Editor’s Update Monday Oct. 5th 7:00AM: Here is the latest as provided this morning from Everett Community College…
Police are investigating a report that a former Everett Community College student said that he’d dreamed something bad would happen on Oct. 5.
“Things looked pretty nasty on October 5th. I hope it was just my dream and that nothing will happen,” the former student allegedly wrote via social media on Sept. 13.
The former student also mentioned the Oct. 1 shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore. in a post Sunday night.
Shortly after 2 a.m., the former student posted a message saying that “It’s so very good what I foresaw did not become reality in the end” and that it was a “false alarm.”
All comments were reported to police. The former student did not say where”something bad” would happen, nor did he mention harming anyone at EvCC.
On Sunday morning, EvCC sent a note to students and staff, which was also posted online, about extra security at the college this week and other steps employees and students should take to help keep the college safe following the Umpqua shooting.
On Sunday afternoon, a copy of the police report about the former student’s comments was posted on Twitter. Several tweets from people who do not know the former student personally but had heard about the police report warned EvCC students not to come to school on Monday. These messages resulted in a flurry of social media activity, including rumors and questions.
EvCC reported all social media posts to police. EvCC security is also aware of the investigation and social media posts.
More than 50 people had seen and retweeted the photo of the police report by Sunday night before the original poster removed it from Twitter. After seeing the report, EvCC posted this message on social media: “We’ve seen posts warning EvCC students not to come to school tomorrow. Police are investigating. If you know anything, call 911 ASAP.”
The college has increased security and is working closely with police during their investigation. School will remain open, and we continue to state that no direct threat to EvCC has been made.
We anticipate many students will make the choice to stay home today. We cannot speak for what faculty members will do with regard to tests, make ups, etc. – dozens of students expressed concern about missing class and being penalized.
We hope these circumstances will result in positive outcomes for students who are understandably fearful in this time of heightened awareness.
Here is the original story posted on MyEverettNews.com Sunday night…
Click to visit the Everett Community College Facebook Page.
“We’ve seen posts warning EvCC students not to come to school tomorrow. Police are investigating. If you know anything, call 911 ASAP.”
This then caused a flood of activity on social media and calls began coming in to the 9-1-1 center in Everett.
A short while later Everett Community College added this post…
“No direct threat to EvCC that we know of. We just want you to be aware that we know and police know.”
MyEverettNews.com reached out to Everett Community College and asked what their advice to students was regarding coming to campus on Monday. We received the following response on Twitter…
“Up to students to decide. No direct threats to EvCC reported. Classes happening as scheduled.”
MyEverettNews.com contacted Aaron Snell who is the Public Information Officer for the Everett Police Department who told us the following…”We know of no specific threats,” Snell said. “But we are looking into this.”
Shortly after 10:00 PM Everett Community College posted the following on their Facebook Page…
“Thank you for the questions and concerns tonight. To repeat, there is no direct threat to EvCC and classes are happening as scheduled tomorrow. We’re working closely with police, but we don’t have any more news to share tonight. We will post an update at 7 a.m. even if there’s nothing new.”
Again classes are scheduled to go on as normal. We’ll let you know of any further developments.
October 4, 2015
Everett, Everett Schools, Police Blotter