University of Virginia Library

Ignore Bomb Threats

Yesterday's Cabell Hall bomb scare was
the last straw. Until now we have hesitated
to make any comment about the increasingly
frequent bomb scares because we felt that
anything we might say about them went
without saying and because we hoped that
would be a fad that would soon die out. It
looks, however, as if they are here to stay.

That the persons responsible for them are
sick, sadistic, childish, and incredibly selfish,
that the bomb scares inconvenience hundreds
of people, that they interrupt beyond repair
carefully prepared curricula all do go
without saying. The fact that one member
of a community of 8500 people can bring
so large a portion of the community to a
standstill, presumably because he has failed
to prepare for a test, is ludicrous and ridiculous.
That anyone would presume to impose
himself on so many other people in
such a way is disgusting.

As everyone knows, however, the "mad
bombers" are able to continue their outrages
because the probability of their getting
caught is practically nil. We shall always
admire the work of the Department
of Security in catching the first of
the bombers, and we do not consider it
inefficient of them that they are unable
to apprehend his successors.

We feel, however, that the time has come
to ignore any further bomb threats. We are
aware of the implications if an ignored
threat were realized, but we cannot believe
that this could happen. We do not deny
that in this community there could be a
person deranged enough to plant a bomb in
Cabell Hall, but we sincerely doubt it. We
doubt further that if such a person did want
to destroy the building he would take the
chance of having his attempt fail by warning
the authorities. Even further, if he had no
compunctions about razing the building, he
would probably have no compunctions about
including all the people in it. In short, then,
if there really were a bomb in Cabell Hall
the bomber would be wasting his efforts
of putting it there by calling in a warning
of it.

Yesterday's threat illuminated one other
point which makes the evacuations absurd.
Because of the rain, ousted students took
refuge on the various porches of Cabell
Hall. Surely if there were an explosion
large enough to warrant whole-scale evacuation
of the building it would kill all the
people on the porches, as well as the
courageous guards who bar the doors. We
saw one guard let a dean in yesterday,
though. That people are allowed to stand
in such dangerous proximity to the threatened
building and that the evacuation is not enforced
one hundred per cent reflect an attitude
on the part of the authorities that
they, too, don't really believe there is a
bomb. The time they take to search the
building is not enough to permit a thorough
search, anyway.

Thus no one really believes there is a
bomb, but we all are continually forced to
act as if there might be one. Our feeling is
that the harm and inconvenience done to
students and faculty alike is enough to warrant
"gambling" on there being no bomb

We are certain that the threats would
only have to be ignored once or twice before
they would cease. Further, to ignore
them without warning might even provide
clues to the identity of the person who
made them. Even if he had enough sense
to go to Cabell Hall to make sure his test
was called off, he would still get some of
his just due in the poor grade he would make
on the test.

If the officials responsible for making the
decisions on bomb threats are not convinced
that it is safe to ignore them completely,
then perhaps a workable solution would be
to tell students entering the building that
there has been a threat but that they can
go in if they want to. In that way classes
could be held for those courageous enough
to brave the danger, and the threats would
soon become ineffective. Whatever the officials
decide to do, if the threats are allowed
to continue to work, then there is no
doubt that they will continue to happen.