At 2:10 p.m. on Feb. 26, an alert was sent to the Loyola community that a bomb threat was reported on campus, and everyone on campus was instructed to shelter in place.
“Loyola has received a bomb threat,” the initial alert said. “An investigation is underway with Baltimore City Police and Fire…Individuals on the Evergreen campus should remain in their current location.”
The community was alerted every 20 minutes with updates about the incident and the status of the shelter in place order. By 2:49 p.m., an alert informed that classes were cancelled until further notice and to continue to shelter in place.
While the situation was being addressed, Loyola classes were cancelled, and students were advised to take shelter until further notice. Molly English, class of 2026, was sitting in Starbucks when the threat first arrived.
“It was just shocking, knowing that it could happen. A few of my friends have experienced student threats at their campuses, not Loyola. I guess I’ve gotten comfortable in the fact that it’s my second year of college and I am able to experience that. So, it was definitely a surprise,” she said.
While some students were concerned about the threat on campus, others weren’t. John Casey, class of 2024, was one of those students.
“I was relatively unconcerned with it. I was inside and just doing work so I just kind of kept doing what I was doing. I didn’t have any classes today, so it didn’t have that big of an impact on me,” Casey said.
The disruption caused by the threat has also given some strong feelings during the day. Mike Bender, Executive in Residence of Accounting, expressed his opinion on the threat.
“My first thought was that this was a real pain in the neck. I wasn’t concerned as much as I was thinking that this was a disruption that we don’t really need,” Mr. Bender said.
Prior to the threat, Bender was teaching a class until 2:00pm, and then had two student meetings from 2:00pm to 3:00pm and claims he didn’t see much of the bomb threat except for the emails received by the university, along with a student mentioning it to him.
“I was done with classes, so it didn’t impact my schedule directly. But it obviously had an impact on everybody else’s schedule. The biggest schedule disruption for me was to be able to walk over to Starbucks and get a cup of coffee,” he explained.
By 2:59 p.m., the shelter in place order has been lifted, and classes beginning at or after 4 p.m. would be held as scheduled. Loyola also released information about resources for students who require support.
“This type of situation can be stressful. If you are in need of support, please contact the University Chaplain or the professionals in the Counseling Center, Campus Ministry, ALANA Services, the Office of Residence Life and Housing, or the Office of Equity and Inclusion. Faculty, staff, and administrators can reach out to counselors at Loyola’s Employee Assistance Program, at 1-800-765-0770,” the email mentioned.
According to the status on the Emergency Information page of the Loyola website, the threat was determined to be not credible.
If you have any information about the situation, contact Loyola Public Safety’s emergency line at 410-617-5911.
