The Paper Trail

Colgate Arrests Student for Gossip Site's Shooting Scare

March 27, 2008 RSS Feed Print

Authorities have apprehended a Colgate University student they believe is responsible for a shooting scare perpetuated on the gossip site JuicyCampus.com, the Colgate Maroon-News reports. About two weeks ago, a possible threat on JuicyCampus was reported to Colgate officials, who subsequently sent an E-mail to students warning them of the threat.

The original post reads:

"I wonder if i could shut down the school...By saying I'm going to shoot as many people as i can in my second class tomorrow, I hope I get more than 50........... For liability reasons and ip tracking I won't leave it at that. But seriously, this site is rediculous, if it got big, and someone put the effort into writing a big long serious suicide note informing all readers that he would kill over 100 kids, they could shut down the school."

Law enforcement officials obtained the IP address of the poster from the "anonymous" website (with the help of a state subpoena) and apprehended the student this week.

All eyes now return to the JuicyCampus site itself, which has come under fire for basically bringing out the worst in human nature. The site says it is merely "enabling online anonymous free speech on college campuses." The anger has been mirrored throughout the country and has inspired some attempted bans and boycotts at Colgate and a host of other schools.

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