Moore evacuated after bomb threat

A bomb threat forced the evacuation of the Moore School of Electrical Engineering for more than 30 minutes last Friday. The first bomb scare of the academic year, the threat later proved to be a false alarm. Administrative Assistant Carolyn Elken said she received the bomb threat at approximately 12:45 p.m. "A guy said that there is bomb in the basement of the Moore school set to go off in 40 minutes," she said. Professor Max Mintz said police forced him to evacuate his class from the building at approximately 1:15 p.m., nearly 30 minutes after the call was placed to University Police, according to police records. Elken said she did not believe the threat was real but notified Business Administrator Estelle Taylor, who then called University Police. University Police Sergeant Keith Christian said University and Philadelphia Police evacuated the building. After an extensive search of the building, no bomb was found. Taylor said she was surprised that everyone handled the situation calmly. "Nobody got hysterical," she said. "Nobody got panicky. It is very important to see something like that. "We just hope whoever it was doesn't know how to make a bomb," she added. The only people seriously affected by the bomb threat were the students taking a Computer Science 260 exam, taught by Mintz. Engineering sophomore David Robinson said the class had just began working on the exam when the building was evacuated. "We worked for about four minutes [on the exam] and then some secretary knocked on the door," Robinson said. "[Mintz] said 'for reasons we can't explain right now ... line up and leave the building.' Everybody was really quiet." Robinson said he was never told about the reason for the evacuation. But he said rumors of a bomb scare eventually spread throughout the crowd. Students began speculating that a fellow classmate was responsible for the bomb scare, according to Robinson. "I know that this particular class causes a lot of stress for computer science students," he said. "Everybody assumed that someone was just playing a joke trying to get out of the 260 exam." Mintz said he was forced to cancel the exam and give a makeup today. Mintz said his concern was not over having to write another exam, but the health of his students. "I make up exams all the time," he said. "It's the least of it. "It's really indecent that students who are working hard are given additional stress in their lives," Mintz added. "It's very harmful to the students. It is the end of the term and many of them are under great stress." Over the last year, bomb scares forced the evacuations of Meyerson, Stiteler and Vance halls, along with the Penn Hillel building. In each incident no bomb was found.