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Pulaski Tech shut down after police receive report of threat Friday, May 4, 2007 By D.J. Smith North Little Rock Times NORTH LITTLE ROCK - Officials closed campuses of Pulaski Technical College on Thursday after police received an anonymous 911 call about a threat of violence. Pulaski Tech President Dan Bakke said the decision to cancel classes at the 8,700-student school was a cautionary move by city and campus police. "I feel good that we acted proactively immediately," Bakke said. At a news conference at the school's main campus, North Little Rock police spokesman Sgt. Terry Kuykendall said police received an anonymous 911 call about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday. "The caller stated he overheard two white males in a conversation," Kuykendall said. "During the conversation, the caller stated he heard one of the two white males make a statement, 'What we're going to do at Pulaski Tech tomorrow will be worse than what happened at Virginia Tech.'" The call was traced to a phone booth on West Broadway in North Little Rock, he said. Police quickly contacted Pulaski Tech officials, who requested that the department's detective division handle the investigation, Kuykendall said. Early Thursday, guards were stationed at every entrance turning cars away from the campuses, Bakke said. College students were notified by the campus e-mail system, with those attempting to attend the 8 a.m. classes turned away by police at the campus entry points, and those few students found on the campuses were escorted off. Thursday was to be a study day, with no classes scheduled as students prepare for their upcoming finals. Bakke said classes would resume when it is deemed safe and appropriate. "Each night as I go to sleep, I'm just waiting for a call because it can happen ... any time, any place," Bakke said. "That's the nature of being a college." Kuykendall said police want the anonymous caller to come forward and help the department with any information that "could be extremely valuable to this investigation." He said police had to gauge the credibility of the caller, but it was "felt the person was sincere and concerned enough sounding" to warrant closing the school. Bakke said the college has a crisis team which would work with detectives during the investigation, including turning over incident records of students who may have a history pertinent to the probe. Just last week, state college presidents and chancellors met at Pulaski Tech with local and state police, the FBI and others to discuss crisis policies and procedures in the wake of the deadly Virginia Tech shootings. The incident at Pulaski Tech prompted extra safety measures at other schools in North Little Rock. Many of the police department's resource officers who are assigned schools in the North Little Rock district were attending a class, but all were sent immediately to their respective schools and extra officers were called in to give a larger presence, Kuykendall said. |
