Florida State University was hit with a bomb threat Thursday. It's the latest in a series of similar scares at other colleges and universities across the state and country this year.
The bomb threat was called in at FSU’s main campus in Tallahassee and at its satellite location in Panama City. FSU’s Stone building was evacuated as law enforcement searched both buildings and after a search, nothing was found.
The school sent out an emergency alert around noon advising people to avoid the area of the Stone building, which houses the College of Education, and announcing that the building had been evacuated. At 1:15 p.m., the university sent another alert, issuing an “All Clear" message.
Nearly a dozen Florida schools received similar threats between Wednesday and Thursday of this week. Two of Santa Fe College’s satellite campuses in Alachua and Starke had to evacuate.
City College Hollywood and two campuses of Eastern Florida State College also received bomb threats on Wednesday. Both schools are located in South Florida.
Volusia and Flagler County also saw bomb threats called into schools, including Flagler-Palm Coast High School.
The fake threats come after several Historically Black institutions, like Bethune Cookman University and Edward Waters College, received bomb threats in February. The FBI announced that month it had identified the people responsible for those and that they would be charged with hate crimes.
No motive or suspect (s) have been identified in the latest spate of school bomb threats, nor is it known if the threats are related to each other. Yet they come as the United States continues to figure out how to address gun violence in general, and at schools specifically, following the recent killings of children at a Uvalde Texas Elementary School. Congress recently passed a series of new laws expanding background checks for applicants under 21 and investing in more mental health drug dependency interventions.
