Town of Onondaga, NY – A suitcase that a student locked inside a locked ladies room stall for safekeeping forced the evacuation of between 80 and 90 Onondaga Community College students and instructors this morning from the school’s Whitney Applied Technology Center Center, college officials said. A campus police officer found the small, black suitcase in the second floor bathroom...
Town of Onondaga, NY – A suitcase that a student locked inside a locked ladies room stall for safekeeping forced the evacuation of between 80 and 90 Onondaga Community College students and instructors this morning from the school’s Whitney Applied Technology Center Center, college officials said.
A campus police officer found the small, black suitcase in the second floor bathroom about 11:30 a.m., said Sgt. John D’Eredita, speaking for the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office.
The security office called for the sheriff, evacuated five classes meeting in the building and directed traffic away from the center, OCC spokeswoman Amy Kremenek said.
While members of the sheriff’s Hazardous Device Disposal Team checked the suitcase, a student told deputies that the suitcase was hers and that she had locked it inside the women’s room because she had no place to keep it while she went to class, D’Eredita said.
The contents of the suitcase was rendered safe and the building reopened at 1:30 p.m., D’Eredita said. No one was hurt and the student was not charged, he said.
Kremenek said college officials are calling each of the evacuated students to arrange for them to collect the belongings they had to leave behind.
The two remaining classes that were to be held today at Whitney, a business course and an automotive technology class, were canceled, she said.