Addison Smith took a threat leveled at Lakehead University seriously.
The southern-Ontario student stayed home from class on Thursday, after word spread about a vague threat made the night before on the controversial social media application Yik Yak.
The message, posted anonymously, read “Some of you are alright. Don’t go to campus tmr.”
The threat mirrored similar warnings made by a 4chan poster ahead of the deadly Umpqua Community College shootings earlier this year near Roseburg, Ore.
“(I was) pretty concerned,” the second-year student said. “We saw it last night and I immediately locked my door and contacted my parents to let them know what’s up. I’m not really going to school today, I don’t feel comfortable.”
Police arrested an 18-year-old male student from southern Ontario and charged him with mischief in the case. The arrest was made late Thursday morning.
"He's currently being processed at 1200 Balmoral and he's charged right now with mischief under the Criminal Code," Insp. Don Lewis said during an impromptu news conference.
Lewis isn't sure if the charges will be upgraded.
"That's still up in the air at the moment whether or not that's going to happen," he said. "That's definitely open for possibility."
Lewis said police take all incidents like this quite seriously, even though the treat wasn't directed at any one person or the school itself.
"However it was enough to cause precautions to be put in place by LU security and Thunder Bay Police," he said, cautioning the public to be wary of what they post online and realize they are never truly anonymous. And there are consequences, Lewis added.
"The danger is if someone was to carry out any type of act that's been associated with what's been said on line, it goes without saying," Lewis said. "To cause institutions such as LU or the Police Service for that matter to put steps in place, it does take up quite a bit of resources. But the safety of the LU community, the students and staff is what the priority is for us."
Smith said she wasn’t the only one of her classmates taking the better safe than sorry route.
“The parking lot looked pretty empty this morning and still does,” Smith said.
Police presence was heavy on campus on Thursday, with several marked and unmarked vehicles doing regular patrols.
Thunder Bay Police were also stationed outside the Agora entrance and were seen entering and exiting university buildings.
Lewis said they were informed about the threat at about 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday in a communication from Lakehead security staff.
A university spokesman said he couldn’t comment on an ongoing investigation, but in a communications bulletin posted to the school’s website, university officials say Lakehead security alerted police to the threat and that the campus remains open and classes will continue as scheduled.
Lewis said it remains to be seen if the message was a copycat effort, adding the residence of the student in custody will be searched. Police have not named the suspect.
