Ironically, it reminds me of Sept. 11.
Waking up on Tuesday morning after another long night at work and constant arguing and bickering with my ex-girlfriend, I was deliberating on whether I could bear another morning class.
That’s when the phone rang.
“There’s a bomb on campus,” a voice said. I scratched my head in disbelief. I was in disbelief.
At BC? Please. Yet, another local yokel trying to keep from having to take a midterm exam.
I used to think it was funny. I use to joke with my friends about doing it myself. That was when I was in junior high school.
Calling the school switchboard at 8:40 a.m. with a bomb threat is not funny — not anymore.
Unfortunately, since the attacks on this country by terrorists, the thick skin that our country had about bomb threats has vanished completely.
Driving up Mt. Vernon, I thought about what kind of cowardly moron would be stupid enough to call this in.
Then, arriving on campus to see people standing on the soccer fields pissed me off even more.
See, the majority of students were probably happy to get out of school. Hell, I was too.
But such threats are not only a waste of time, in this day and age, it’s just not funny. Would anyone think it was funny if a bomb had gone off?
BC was ill-prepared and couldn’t have possibly cleared the campus in time. And this campus is small enough that everyone would know somebody who was hurt.
Simply put, the idea that this college would ever be attacked by terrorists is laughable — yes. But whoever called this in created a slight sense of insecurity.
I doubt if anyone is going to want to leave class several times for the rest of the semester and that’s exactly what can happen. Since the hoax on Tuesday, you can bet the house on the fact that the administration, as well as the campus police, and now BPD are going to not take any chances whatsoever.
Common sense is that pranks shouldn’t be taken seriously, but since the attacks, everyone is on heightened alert and the last thing we need to do is worry about Bakersfield College, of all places, being attacked. I have more important things to worry about anyway.
This bomb threat speaks to many things going on in this country. Two months ago this wouldn’t even get coverage in The Rip, other than a news brief on the Campus page.
Bombs, anthrax, plane crashes and the like could happen and that’s scary enough. The last thing we need is to instill more stress.
Maybe more apt at this point is for the person or persons responsible to just grow up. We’ve all got better things to do and nobody’s laughing anymore.