(Cars are seen leaving HCC after the campus was closed due to a threat)
HOLYOKE, Mass. (WGGB) — State Police say they are questioning one person following a threat made towards a person at Holyoke Community College.
Around 12:45 p.m., the campus was closed and evacuated for the afternoon and classes canceled after a threat was made, according to HCC spokesperson Chris Yurko.
State Police spokesperson Dave Procopio adds that troopers are currently questioning a “young adult male who allegedly made threats of violence earlier today against a family member and members of the college community.”
That man, whose name has not been released, was found at a residence in Springfield Tuesday afternoon and Procopio notes that “the ongoing investigation will determine if and how the suspect will be charged criminally.”
The school’s Facebook page notes that the campus will reopen for classes at 4:00 p.m.
No injuries were reported.
Wondered what the hell happened. You’re the first news team with information. Everyone was scared to death. This school has NO evacuation plan, NEVER does legally required drills for this kind of thing. PLEASE find out why for us students!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey,,, this is my son’s school.
Wwlp knew first…just sayn
Yeah but they took away their Disqus comments so why read their news if you can’t make comments.
thank god my son didn’t have classes today!
no wggb knew first just saying lol
Carol you are lucky he was not there, They have no evacuation plan and don’t practice drills for this even though its legally mandated that they do!
I am a student at HCC and have been evacuated before. I thought they did a great job alerting everyone.
Put everybody under 60 on tranquilizers!
I am also a student at HCC and have been evacuated for drills… so I guess they ARE legal with their emergency plans of action….
Leia, I was told by a teacher that they have not done an evacuation drill in 8 years, and have never had a meeting with teachers to give them a plan for an emergency. I have no option but to take his word for it. Because I’m a new student and don’t know what they do or don’t do.
I believe you’ve been given bad information by this teacher, perhaps unintentionally. Not everyone is on campus at the same time (thankfully). I have been going to HCC for 6 semesters in a row and have done drills, but I have also not been on campus when I knew a drill was taking place. There is even special equipment which students were trained to use, which helps lower handicapped people down the stairs in the event of an emergency in which the elevators are not to be used.
all school have to have executed plans and they all do even holyoke tina
@joeloenacasa it you post something its probably wrong….smh
@joeloenacasa if your posting it its probably wrong….smh
I don’t recall there being a law for colleges to require evacuation drills. I certainly can’t find it online anywhere. I remember being evacuated from my dorm at Westfield, but never from classes.
http://www.hcc.edu/about-hcc/campus-safety/emergency-preparedness Here is some more information about the schools safety plans.
All educational facilities in MA are mandated to have posted evacuation procedures as well as practice them, this includes colleges & even home childcare facilties. Maybe HCC could just use a little practice at its efficiency though… It’s been 2hrs and there are still people waiting to exit the parking lot & they are now letting people in because 4pm classes are proceeding as usual. Bit chaotic.
I heard it was chaos trying to get out of the school from my daughter. HCC, take the hint and use your security to direct traffic off the campus and into the traffic? What a scary thought for all of those kids and adults trying to get off a campus when they don’t know the extent of the threat. HCC needs to step us here. Consider this incident a training exercise that failed miserably.
Agreed….spent almost an hour stuck in traffic trying to get out
It took my daughter 1 hr to get off the campus. She just came home. If HCC has a plan in place, they forgot about the bottleneck at the exits and how hard it is to get into traffic on Homestead avenue with a blinking light. I am not pleased at HCC’s actions at all. I think my information is spot-on.
I’m not sure what plan you can come up with that will make it so everyone trying to leave campus at the same time will be a faster process. There is traffic leaving the campus every single day at the busy times. Security directing traffic wouldn’t change much, and perhaps make it worse. Short of redesigning the campus and roads surrounding, this is simply the nature of the campus.
It’s not an easy school to evacuate cars. Only a couple entrances.
Because all of us responding don’t know how to evacuate cars easier DOES NOT mean it can not be done. I expect college educated individuals to remember that we can’t all be experts at everything, especially traffic control and engineering.
Traffic has always been a nightmare there… I think as long as all the students were escorted safetly OUT of the building there is not much issue.. if you were really fearful instead of getting in your car and driving into a cluster*** of traffic, you could walk into the woods…
Once again alpinequeen doesn’t have a freaking clue
That’s a rather “micro abrasive” comment.
Instead of everybody complaining about the traffic, you should be glad nothing happened. And they have the idiot in custody. Unreal.
@alpinequeen get back in the kitchen
it was chaos leaving there!! it did take me about an hour to get out, but I agree there really wasn’t much you could do; there is really was only one way out, the other way out was closed. just felt like what if anything was really going on. we would be stuck…I like HCC just feel what if the person in custody didn’t tell someone he was going to do that than something severe could have happened especially with us not being able to get out…with that said glad its all over with and we are all safe!