Students, faculty and staff franticly exited the M.D. Anderson Memorial Library Tuesday afternoon after the building was closed and evacuated.
Simeon
A former student, identified as John Simeon, 30, is accused of making “inappropriate remarks” to a faculty member, said Interim Associate Vice President and Vice Chancellor of Marketing and Communication Richard Bonnin.
Yet, Simeon did not include a threat to bomb the college or University, police said, which is why no security alert was sent out to the UH community.
“Our understanding is that a dispute occurred between an ex-student and a faculty member,” Bonnin said.
Simeon, who is in police custody, is charged with making a terroristic threat and criminal trespassing.
Honors College students, like liberal studies senior Paula Jaramillo, were displaced for an hour until the library was reopened and they were told they could come back into the building.
“Our door was open and this lady comes running with much urgency and says ‘we’ve been threatened; you have to leave,’” Jaramillo said. “I took it very seriously because of her tone and we all walked out a back exit.”
“At first we were just startled. Then we were all confused because no one said what the threat was and we didn’t know what to do or where to go.”
Honors classes took refuge in the Ezekiel W. Cullen building and Jaramillo said there were about 35 to 40 people waiting.
The investigation is continuing and the University is taking the incident seriously.
“You get in trouble for making comments like this,” Jaramillo said. “You hear about universities getting shot up all the time.”
