Crime & Safety

Stark State College Kicks Off Open Forums About Safety

College officials decided to host four open forums to hear students' concerns after six bomb threats and multiple snow days

officials kicked off a series of open forums to discuss the school's recent bomb threats, and they reported its first discussion Thursday afternoon was successful.

The campus has been the target of six bomb threats since . Those inside campus buildings were evacuated during each of the earlier threats, but no buildings were evacuated in the last two bomb threats, which were called in on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“It’s been a difficult semester for our students because of the bomb threats and the snow days we’ve had and you add a lot of Monday holidays on top of that,”  said Irene Motts, director of marketing and communications for Stark State College. “It’s distressed students and faculty too.”

That’s why the college chose to host open forums. Motts said campus officials hope to alleviate concerns about safety and academic issues, such as making up missed class time. The first forum Thursday went well, with attendance from about 20 students and the college's president, dean of students, provost and chief of security.

Upcoming forums are at noon Saturday, 4 p.m. Monday and 9 a.m. Wednesday. All forums will take place in the Silk Auditorium.

Faculty also will talk to students during their regular class times to come up with ways to make up work or meet other academic needs, Motts said.

Motts said she and other campus officials are proud of how the students handled the class cancellations so far. (Many on the college’s Facebook page wrote about how they wanted the bomb threats to stop so they could attend their classes again.)

“Our students are here to learn,” Motts said. “They want to get their degrees, and they want to get out in the workforce.”

The Canton Repository reported Thursday that college officials have changed their strategy on bomb threats.

Mark Weldon, head of security at Stark State, said the college won’t notify students or evacuate buildings “unless we think the source is credible,” according to the Repository.

Jackson Township Police Chief Dave Zink said the decision to evacuate lies with Stark State security, but Jackson Township Police and the Canton Police Department also are investigating the six threats.

Male callers were behind each bomb threat, which came in from a different Canton pay phone each time, Zink said.

“We actually obtained some videos from places where calls were made,” he said. “We’re going to try to identify people of interest — not necessarily individuals that were involved, but that may have some information.”

Jackson Township, Stark State security and Canton police continue to share information, but it’s still early on in the investigation, Zink said.


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