Precautionary Reaction

At 5:35 a.m. April 4, the 911 center alerted the Ottawa Police Department that security officers at Ottawa University noticed “suspicious packages” at different locations on campus.

Vice President and Provost Dennis Tyner said one package was found in the lower stairs on the north side of Tauy Jones Hall, as well as two others by the Mowbray Student Union.

“There were three boxes left in locations on campus from a scavenger hunt the night before,” Tyner said.

Even though the packages turned out to be harmless, Tyner said no chances needed to be taken when students’ safety is concerned.

“We treat everything like it’s a serious situation,” he said. “We spotted some suspicious looking packages in some locations where we would normally not find those packages. That information was conveyed very quickly to security, and then from security to some administrators, so we decided very quickly that we were going to act in the manner that was consistent with what we’ve put together in our emergency response plan.”

Tyner said the Ottawa police were on the scene quickly, while the FBI and other law enforcement agencies arrived later that morning.

“Protocol was to come talk to security officers and see what their thoughts were about the packages,” said Capt. Adam Weingartner of the Ottawa Police Department. “When we handle situations like that in school settings, we begin to make processes to make evacuations as necessary.”

Students in Bennett Hall were evacuated to Brown Hall to get them further from the location where the packages were found.

“Quite frankly, the idea was to bring in a bomb squad,” Tyner said. “We didn’t know it was a bomb, but anytime you hear ‘suspicious package,’ the first thing people think of is, ‘what’s in it, is it an explosive?’ and so, obviously we don’t have bomb squad people here on campus, so they were bringing in the experts from the outside to come to our campus.”

Tyner said the bomb squad took the longest to arrive, coming from Topeka, and by the time it showed up, there was no need. Students who had participated in the scavenger hunt realized the packages could be theirs, and came forward.

“We were able to watch our emergency plan unfold (Thursday),” Tyner said. “We don’t ask for opportunities to see that happen, but that’s what happened. These are things that we think about, we’ve written about, we have documented what we will do in these situations, and (Thursday) was an opportunity to watch that unfold.”

Weingartner admitted it was not a situation he had seen yet, but all groups were as prepared as they could be.

“It is very uncommon. This is the first time in my experience we’ve had this at the university,” he said. “We’ve kind of practiced over responses in this situation, and in this case it worked very well.”