Wednesday November 17, 2010 year: 130 No. 153 the student voice of
The Ohio State University
www.thelantern.com
thelantern
aUstin oWens / Lantern photographer
the franklin county Bomb squad was among several local, state and federal law agencies on ohio state’ s campus t uesday searching mcpherson laborator y and three other buildings mentioned in a bomb threat sent to the fBi.
Campus bomb threat a mystery to many dYlan tUssel Lantern reporter tussel.2@osu.edu
four buildings mentioned in threat at 8:19 a.m. tuesday the fBi informed ohio state p olice of a bomb threat targeting four campus buildings: William oxley thompson memorial librar y and scott, smith and mcpherson laboratories. t he buildings were closed for investigation by local, state and federal law agencies for most of the day. smith and mcpherson labs reopened at 5 p.m. scott lab reopened at 6 p.m. and thompson reopened at 9 p .m.
t argeted buildings
offi cials closed neil a venue north of 12th avenue, 17th avenue between t uttle park place and college road and 18th a venue between neil a venue and college road.
closed streets
neil a venue
William oxley thompson memorial librar y
math tower
Journalism Building scott laborator y
Bricker hall science and engineering librar y
19th
smith laborator y
mcpherson laborator y
ue
a ven
denney hall
18th a venue
e
17th a venu
More than 1,500 Ohio State students had to leave class Tuesday morning because of a bomb threat that led university officials to close four buildings on campus. After 12 hours of searching, investigators did not find any explosives. University officials used the Buckeye Alert system, which sends emergency alerts via text message, e-mail or phone call, to notify students about the bomb threat. But many students, including dozens who were in the buildings when they were evacuated, were unaware of the threat. OSU’s Department of Public Safety announced at 8:41 a.m. Tuesday that police were investigating bomb threats that mentioned four OSU buildings: the William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library and McPherson, Smith and Scott laboratories. Police evacuated the buildings about an hour after someone sent an anonymous message to the FBI tip line at fbi.gov. The tip went through the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., before going to FBI field officers in Columbus, who notified OSU officials of the threat at 8:19 a.m., said FBI Special Agent Michael E. Brooks. There was about a 20-minute lag between the time university officials learned of the threat and the time they sent messages to Buckeye Alert subscribers. Officials from several law enforcement agencies searched the four buildings throughout the day with bomb-sniffing dogs. All classes and activities in those buildings were canceled during the searches, but all other campus activities continued as usual. Officers did not find any explosives, and their search concluded at about 8 p.m. Tuesday. All buildings were reopened by 9 p.m. Police would not disclose details about the threat. Following the investigations Tuesday, OSU officials sent a university-wide e-mail encouraging students to subscribe to the Buckeye Alert system. About 32,000 subscribers to the system received
warnings of the situation Tuesday morning, said Bob Armstrong, director of Emergency Management and Fire Prevention. But some who enrolled in the opt-in alert system said they never got the message. “I signed up my freshman year, and I’ve gotten other alerts from OSU, but I didn’t get one today,” said Allie Dorsky, a fourth-year in strategic communication. “The only e-mail I got today was the Student Life e-mail that was sent out later.” Dorsky is the vice president for risk management for Alpha Chi Omega sorority and is responsible for keeping the chapter informed of safety issues. “I was pretty shocked when I found out about the bomb threat. It wasn’t just some minor thing,” Dorsky said. “It’s pretty alarming that something like that was going on around me, and I had absolutely no idea.” Dorsky said some classmates who also subscribe to Buckeye Alert did not receive warnings. Armstrong said those cases might not be the university’s fault. “It’s not always an issue with our system,” he said. “Once we send out the text to the carrier, it’s up to the carrier, such as Verizon, to distribute the text to the individual.” But Dorsky said she was signed up to receive e-mail alerts, so no carrier was involved. Undergraduate Student Government President Micah Kamrass will meet with Public Safety officials Friday and will urge them to switch Buckeye Alert to an opt-out system, so students will automatically be enrolled unless they unsubscribe. USG has been pushing for that policy for about two years, Kamrass said. He said he will use the bomb threats Tuesday as an example of why the university should automatically enroll students in the system. “I hope this example shows why that’s so important,” Kamrass said. “In matters like this, that can literally be life and death.” Kamrass said he also had heard complaints from students who did not receive notice of the bomb threat. Some students who had to leave class because of the bomb threat said they did not know what was going on. Kevin Haimes, a fourth-year in mechanical engineering, said the fire alarm went off about 10 minutes into his 8:30 a.m. engineering class in Scott.
celeste laborator y
evans laborator y
college road moll Y gra Y / Lantern managing editor for design
“Basically, everyone thought it was a fire drill, so we just casually walked outside,” Haimes said. “Everyone was just hanging out outside for five to 10 minutes before one police woman came up to us and told us to back up.” The group stayed close to the building for about 30 minutes, Haimes said.
“We were in the part they ended up roping off until they roped it off,” he said. Stanley Durkin, professor of physics, was teaching an 8:30 a.m. class in Smith when the alarm
continued as Threat on 3A
OSU Police officer pleads guilty to child endangerment ricK schanZ Campus editor schanz.5@osu.edu
An Ohio State police officer pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of child endangering last week in Fairfield County, located southeast of Franklin County. The Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team arrested Jason D. Henthorn, 35, of Lancaster on June 9. Henthorn, who has a mixed performance record since joining OSU Police in 2000, was originally charged with gross sexual imposition involving a child younger than 13. The child who is the focus of the case is 6. As part of his plea deal, the charges were lessened from a third-degree felony, which could have landed him in prison for five years, to a firstdegree misdemeanor.
Judge Chris Martin of the Fairfield County Common Pleas Court sentenced Henthorn to 180 days in jail. Fifty-nine days of the sentence were suspended as part of the plea, but Henthorn is on probation for two years, “assuming he follows orders,” said Denise MacFadden, a Fairfield County prosecutor. “He is not under electronic monitoring or house arrest,” but he has a curfew, she said. Instead of fighting the charges in a court trial, which would have begun Tuesday, Henthorn decided to accept the plea deal because he didn’t want the child “to be forced to testify,” said his attorney, Jeremy Dodgion. The plea deal was finalized out of court about two weeks before it went before the judge Friday, Dodgion said. As part of the deal, Henthorn agreed to pay for any counseling the victim would seek.
Jason d. henthorn
OSU Police Chief Paul Denton said in an e-mail that his department has an ongoing Internal Affairs investigation into Henthorn. The investigation was “initiated immediately when criminal charges were filed.” “Henthorn was relieved from duty when we learned of the serious allegations,” Denton said. “Until (the investigation) is concluded, he will remain relieved from duty and
not return to work.” Before joining OSU Police, Henthorn was a deputy with the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office from 1996 to 2000. According to an OSU Police personnel file,
Henthorn received more than a dozen written commendations for his work, including his success apprehending a wanted individual, and serving as a field training officer. Henthorn was on a crime scene team that won the department’s “team award” in 2006. But Henthorn’s service record also includes a one-day suspension and other blemishes. He received an oral reprimand Jan. 19 for missing his special duty assignment — OSU men’s basketball vs. Northwestern. On Oct. 10, 2009, during the second half of the Wisconsin vs. OSU football game, Henthorn allowed two women on top of Morrill Tower while he was stationed on “sniper/observer” duty, according to the file. In a police audio recording of an internal affairs
continued as Henthorn on 3A 1A