Threatening note triggers lockdown at college

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - St. Peter's College locked down its campus yesterday for several hours following the discovery of a note that referenced killing students and the massacre at Virginia Tech.

Nothing dangerous was found and the lockdown was lifted just before 3 p.m., school spokeswoman Lorraine McConnell said.

She said campus security became aware at 10:40 a.m. of the handwritten note, taped in the stairwell of an administration and classroom building, and had e-mail and cell-phone text message alerts sent to students within two minutes.

McConnell said it was the first time the private Roman Catholic school used its text message alert system, installed last summer in response to the April 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech in which 33 people died.

"Living in the world we live in today, we have to respond to a note indicating this would happen," McConnell said.

McConnell did not know what the note said verbatim.

After the note's discovery, police immediately ordered the campus closed while they began searching each room of each building at the school, which has about 3,000 students.