Protests at the besieged Gallaudet University took a turn for the worse Friday when someone phoned in a bomb threat.
It wasn’t clear if the threat came in on a voice line or a special text line for the deaf, but the message was clear: “There’s a bomb on your campus,” said Gallaudet University spokeswoman Mercy Coogan.
Gallaudet is the world’s only liberal arts college for the deaf. It’s been the scene of continuous protest since provost Jane K. Fernandes was named as the next president.
Friday’s threat brought the D.C. police bomb squad to the campus, police confirmed. Bomb-sniffing dogs sniffed out the university’s field house and administration building, where Gallaudet’s beleaguered board of trustees was holding a long-scheduled meeting.
Graduation, also scheduled for Friday, went off without further difficulty, Coogan said. But the threat did nothing to soothe frayed nerves on the campus.
“It’s just crazy,” Coogan said. “This doesn’t help either side.”
