CORRECTION: An earlier version of this release noted a time that the Sheriff's Office arrived on campus, but that time was an approximation of when MCCC officials first interacted with officers. The officers may have arrived sooner to secure the campus, so MCCC does not have an official arrival time. This has been corrected below.
MONROE, Mich. – Just before 10 a.m. this morning, Monroe County Community College received a bomb threat to its Main Campus in Monroe and its Whitman Center location in Temperance.
As of 4:07 p.m., all campus buildings at Main Campus in Monroe and Whitman Center were officially cleared and declared safe, Vice President of Enrollment Management and Student Success Dr. Scott Behrens announced.
All buildings will be on lockdown until the campus opens tomorrow morning. Main Campus and Whitman Center will be open as usual tomorrow.
People who need to retrieve vehicles may do so. However, the buildings will remain closed until tomorrow, so anyone who needs to retrieve items inside buildings will need to do so then.
Below are more details from Behrens on what happened:
Today at 9:48 a.m., multiple MCCC Safety Services personnel received email messages indicating that an explosive device was on campus. The Safety Services team presented the evidence to the VP of Enrollment Management and Student Success at 9:53 a.m.. The team immediately agreed to treat the threat seriously and evacuate the campus. Verbal evacuations began at 9:57 a.m., and the alarms sounded with a personal message from Safety Services to evacuate all buildings at 9:59 a.m. Police were notified immediately (at 9:57 a.m.). By 10:28 a.m., all buildings were cleared of people, which was verified twice thereafter by a deputy and Safety Services. Once all buildings were cleared, they were officially placed on lockdown (at 10:40 a.m.) so that they could no longer be entered.
Bomb detection dogs were brought in, and every room in all buildings on the Main Campus, as well as the Whitman Center, was methodically and individually cleared.
"First and foremost, I would like to thank our security team and the police and fire departments, including canine officers, who acted swiftly and put themselves at risk to ensure the safety of our students and employees," Behrens said.
Research by the Monroe County Sheriff's office indicates that the email IP address was not local. The Sheriff's Office is continuing its work, and updates will be provided as they become available.
Behrens said that MCCC's Threat Assessment Team will keep the campus community informed as the college continue to learn from its experience and perfect responses to any future campus events such as this one. All employee groups will have representation on this team. The first debrief on this event will occur tomorrow morning.