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Tripod Prompts Lockdown at Sheridan College
When I first heard the news yesterday, that Sheridan College had been locked down because of a gunman, I felt chills run up my spine. Someone from my work had just been sent over to the school to talk about sales, and back at my office we were all concerned. Thankfully it was reported later in the day that there was no attack. Today, however, it's been revealed that the gun sighting that caused a professor to call in the emergency and the subsequent police lockdown was actually... a camera tripod sighting.
The emergency response came about when a professor and eight students reported seeing a suspicious man in camouflage carrying around a "long, tubular object". The police came in and forced students to stay in their classes and dorm rooms until around 4:30pm. Ambulances and emergency vehicles were called in and at the ready, but no gun shots were heard, and no one was hurt. An exhaustive two hour search of the area resulted in the uncovering of no gunman, and no threat.
And today we've learned that this was all triggered by a tripodman, not a gunman.
This got me thinking. Is this level of reaction warranted? Do we need to be so cautious/suspicious/paranoid as to call in the police when a student is seen with a "long, tubular object", that could be a gun, or a tripod, or a document tube, or anything else roughly the same shape and size of a gun (which comes in many different shapes and sizes)?
The fear and quick reaction may have stemmed from the recollection of actual incidents. Attacks that have gone on in other schools and reported by the media (most recently the stabbings at Humberside Collegiate, and on a larger scale, the shootings at Dawson College in Montreal a year and a half ago) may still be fresh on our minds. It also doesn't help that we've experienced the foolish antics of a hoax bomber. But I have to wonder if we're scaring ourselves silly. At what point does reactionary panic surpass common sense?
Sheridan College is known internationally for its animation program, and there are most likely hundreds of students at that school carrying around tripods. Was it the camouflage attire of the tripodman that caused the professor's mind (and the minds of eight other students, we can't forget) to turn directly to the worst case scenario? Clearly, hasty reactions to non-treats sometimes lead to lots of lost time and money, but how could this incident have been handled differently? Should the professor have pursued the tripodman to get a better look at the tripod before calling it a gun?
Although this was another false alarm, I do applaud the school's security and Halton Region police for responding so quickly. It's nice to know that when a threat is perceived, especially in this age of easily acquired firearms and increasingly dangerous schools, response is timely and effective.
Police are still looking for the man that caused the lockdown, and if anyone has any info, they'd like you to call it in to Crime Stoppers. The man is white, around six-feet tall with a medium build, has brown hair with a prominent bald spot and long sideburns. He was last seen wearing blue jeans, a lumber style jacket that was possibly green and thin glasses.
Oh, and he may be a videographer or photographer, so watch out. He might take your picture. It's not yet clear exactly what kind of tripod was carrying. I wonder what would have happened had he been carrying around one of these!
Photo by Photosapience, and not an actual photo from the incident.
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http://www.dpreview.com/news/0801/08013101sigma250500.asp
http://www.paddlinginstructor.com/paddling_news/paddling_news/no_gun_only_a_kayak_paddle_at_hospital_20060411.php
Though, I am happy that police responded as quickly as I hear they did. At a film and animation school, though, the fuckwit professor should have known better. Beware OCAD students, especially if you're walking around with one of those portfolio rollie tubes for your work! IT'S A FUCKING PIPE BOMB!
Now what the hell is this all about reporting this guy to crime stoppers? Another big fucking waste of resources, in this case! There wasn't any crime committed, aside from a criminal sense of fashion. Seriously, camo is ugly. Unless it's a mini skirt. Then it's ok, cuz it ain't hidin' nothin'.
Dude, if you're out there: burn that jacket, hide the tripod, and never come forward. You have nothing to gain and everything to lose.
And, also, where the Great Boston LED Freakout of 2007 occured.
Unlike yourself, I refused to live in a constant state of self-induced pantswetting terror.
I, and you, are FAR more likely to be injured in our homes by slipping in the bathtub, than to be killed by the scary terrorists, the scary gunmen or the superscary boogieman.
Grow a pair, grow up and join the grownups who refuse to be scared, who refuse to be terrorized, who refuse to swallow the propaganda of those who profit from people like you who wet themselves everytime the wind blows or you see a shadow.
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http://www.liveagl.com/blog - Giving You the Latest in Entertainment, Fashion, Music, and just Random stuff, Daily?..
Zero-cost steadicam (just a tripod)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1aPbwcqquk
<a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1638126,00.html";>http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1638126,00.html<;/a>
<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Inkblot.png";>"I see a man, with a gun!"</a>
Well, there was an incident here where a professor took a black-powder rifle to class carrying it openly (for a class), somebody wet their pants and called the cops, and one cop shows up, says "Oh, just an old muzzle loader carried by a bearded old guy - no threat" and goes back about his business like nothing happened.
No lockdown, no APB, no SWAT, no nothing. Guy openly carries a gun onto campus and the reaction is very minor. I'm glad I live in a sane place instead of some place with such a paralyzing fear of guns that someone *imagining* they saw a gun is cause to lock down a campus, waste dozens of cops' time, and spend tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars.
I don't blame the school for taking the action it did based on the calls it received from -several- people.
I wonder though how this guy was carrying a tripod, at an arts school no less, to make several people think he possibly had a gun. I'm sure people carry tripods around all the time there, so why doesn't this happen more often?
Perhaps we're seeing a ROM pipebomb hoax copycat?
Frankly, anyone at that school should know better -- between the photography program and the media program... sigh.
Mmm, sarcasn...
Seriously, what's wrong with these people? I'm sure they'd wet themselves if they saw my meager collection.
I'd bet good money that there are some WVU students who wish that their admins had the same quick reaction time as the powers that be at Sheridan.
get over your smug hubris people, it's a different world now. the type of world where people tote guns on campus and where tripods can easily be mistaken for guns.
I went to Sheridan in the 80s, and the cops in Oakville are dumber than a bag of hammers, and only half as useful. One of my friends was harassed way back then for carrying one of those big tubes for storing artwork. "That's what we call a bazooka," said the cop.
So, no...it's the same old crap. It's a free country, though, so feel free to cower in fear if you want, you big sissy.
Sheridan's a great school...shame it's in Oakville.
Sheridan College eh..Humber College is a bit different, someone was able to be robbed at gun point at the student center..thats a bit of a double standard dont you think?
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Hey Alex, do you have a link to the story? Im a Humber alum (2003) and remember all to well the craziness that would happen on campus (repeated bomb threats around midterms (where my Program director was enlisted by the police to help look for the bomb!), muggings on campus, assaults in rez(!), sword fights at the nearby hospital(????!!!!). 'Good' to know nothing's changed.
I got out of the school just before it happened, and I spent all afternoon communicating with people locked down in the school.
The professor may have overreacted at the situation, but also know that EIGHT other people witnessed the 'long, dark tubular object' and were concerned. I'd say thats cause enough to contact campus security. and it was at the campus security's discretion to call police. Students and professors are all used to seeing tripods around, there are photography and media arts students with them constantly.
But I can't say I'm surprised at seeing this conversation. If there weren't people blaming the overreaction, there would be an outcry of people ranting about the lack of reaction. I personally would like to thank the Halton Regional Police for the quick and efficient reaction, and commend the professor and other witnesses for taking action. We're not living in fear of terrorism, we're being smart about protecting ourselves.
So he is walking through the school and an idiot from a distance thinks it might have been a weapon. Was he alone in the school? Were there no students or other faculty not passing by him? If there was you think they might have had a better look and they would have reacted?
This is the problem, the media have taught us to fear everything. Decades of teaching weakness has resulted in people who are both unable and unwilling to take chances and to think for themselves.
Knee jerk reactions over nothing is the name of the game and we are all players.
When I was a kid, a psycho girl in Cleveland opened fire on a school. It was the source of the Boomtown Rats song I Don't Like Mondays.
Everyone saw it for what it was, a freak occurrence, a terrible tragedy, a sad, disgraceful act. No one panicked, schools across the nation were not locked down, the media didn't run 24/7 horrorshows for our voyeuristic pleasure.
we moved on.
That doesn't happen anymore. Everyone lives in constant fear of everything all the time without using reason to affect judgment.
Never mind it was a completely bogus report - they have to pin the costs on someone.
I'm not kidding.
http://media.barometer.orst.edu/media/storage/paper854/news/2007/05/14/News/suspicious.Man.Prompts.Concern.On.Albany.Campus.Student.Located-2903106.shtml
And Eva, it's not the scariest thing that ever happened to you, because nothing at all happened *to* you. Your fear was entirely your own making. You've allowed your life to be put at the mercy of others, so get used to cowering under your desk for hours, it's going to be the story of your life. In a sane school, you and/or some of your classmates would have brought guns to school as a matter of course, and been prepared to defend yourselves in the extremely unlikely event you ever needed to. That your school is a victim disarmament zone only makes it more likely you'll need to some day, and that you'll have no means besides your bare hands and a sharp pencil (and maybe a heavy tripod) to do it with. Things like VT could happen at your school *because* it's so unusual to see a gun that grown men swoon at the sight of anything that even resembles one.
Or maybe I read it wrong and the person meant breasts, not balls.
Anyway besides the point, don't fucking tell me how I feel. You're not me, you weren't there, so you have no clue. Fuck off and don't fucking talk to me you piece of shit!
I called it! During the lockdown - a tripod - I knew it!
http://www.willems.ca/blog/?p=600
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/14/university.shooting/index.html
but of course, such fears are unfounded.
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