Temple University Police dispelled rumors of an active assailant situation on Main Campus on Friday.
Those rumors stemmed from an incident in Annenberg Hall nearly 24 hours earlier that lasted three minutes, Charlie Leone, the executive director of Campus Safety Services, told The Temple News.
At 3:20 p.m. yesterday, a student who was suspended for “behavior that made people uncomfortable,” walked past Annenberg Hall security, showing his TUID on his phone, Leone said.
TUPD was aware of the student’s behavior and told security not to let the student into the building beforehand, Leone said. The security officer at the desk recognized the student and called Temple Police.
Because the student is currently engaged in ongoing student conduct proceedings, Leone could not identify the student nor explain the details of why others were concerned with his behavior.
Leone said that the Student Affairs CARE team and Counseling Services are involved with the student’s case. The CARE team is a group of university representatives from organizations like TUPD, the Dean of Students and Tuttleman Counseling services that conduct outreach for students of concern but are not for emergencies.
“Right now, he’s where he needs to be and he’s not going to be coming back here for a bit,” Leone said.
TUPD did not issue a TUalert about the incident on Thursday because those notifications are used to keep students safe when there is an ongoing threat to safety, Leone said. TUPD apprehended the student in less than three minutes.
Leone added TUPD did not find a weapon on the student when they apprehended him.
David Boardman, dean of the Klein College of Media and Communication, sent an email to Klein students this afternoon to dispel the active assailant rumor.
“Unfortunately, these facts were twisted by some on social media, causing unnecessary concern today,” Boardman wrote.
“Please rest assured that if you ever need to know about a potentially dangerous situation, Temple University will inform you immediately,” he added.
The rumors began circulating around social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and GroupMe Friday afternoon.
“It becomes, to some people, the truth because now you have so many people putting it out there,” he added. “But it was never, never anything like that.”
Leone said Temple police will look into how the incident yesterday was turned into the rumors of an active assailant on Friday.
He added there will also be extra patrols near Annenberg Hall to “keep fear down and make sure campus is safe.”
Be the first to comment