School officials around the country aren’t taking any safety chances in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings. At least 10 schools and colleges have been locked down or evacuated temporarily since Monday’s tragedy. Several of the threats turned out to be hoaxes, including a note found in a high school bathroom in Great Falls, Montana, that threatened violence “worse than Virginia Tech.”
Other incidents could be attributed to tightly strung nerves. A private school in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, was briefly locked down after unconfirmed sightings of a large man wearing high heels, a skirt, and makeup near the school entrance. And at the University of Oklahoma’s Norman campus, authorities received reports of a man carrying a “suspicious object.” It turned out to be an umbrella.