Death threat keeps half of Seattle Central CC's student body away from campus

An anonymous threat scrawled in a men's bathroom at Seattle Central Community College kept hundreds of students and faculty away from campus this morning.

About half of the 5,500 students at the Capitol Hill campus appeared to be heeding the college's Wednesday advisory to stay home if they felt uneasy about the note discovered last week, said SCCC spokeswoman Laura Mansfield. The note, written in pencil on a toilet-paper dispenser in the science and math building, read: "I will kill everyone at SCCC on May 31."

SCCC officials decided to keep the college open, but notified students and faculty to "use their best personal judgment" about reporting to work and classes.

The college posted security officers at the extrances and exits to the science and math building and brought in extra officers from its north and south campuses. The Seattle police, whose precinct station is a half-mile away, also planned to beef up patrol today.

Stephanie Araiza, an environmental-studies transfer student at SCCC, said she and two of her three roommates are staying away. Araiza, 31, said she was trying to be prudent, especially in light of the massacre of 32 people by a student at Virginia Tech in April.

"I see how easily violence is perpetrated in this society," she said.

Mansfield said the college has not been able to further authenticate the threat. So officials opted to stay open for business — and let students and faculty make their own calls.

"You can't close your doors every time you receive a random threat," she said.

Kyung Song: 206-464-2423 or ksong@seattletimes.com