We are all feeling the pressures of final exams and the close of another semester. But are we so overwhelmed that we feel compelled to threaten the lives of others? 

One student or group of students took their stress one step too far and taped a written bomb threat to an office door in the student union last Thursday.

This incident is disturbing in itself, but the handling of the situation was also very disturbing.  

After arriving on the scene, University Police only felt the need to remove “non-essential” people from the student union, while many employees remained. Who is to say who is essential and who is not? And what is meant by “essential?”  

As far as anyone is concerned, this threat could have been real. A bomb could have ripped through the seams of the building.  Everyone in the building should have been immediately evacuated until the scene was deemed safe.  

Not only were employees allowed to stay, but the Boone Police Department was never called. The entire situation was determined to be a university matter.  

It would seem that the threat of a bomb would affect the entire community, considering churches and homes neighbor the student union by only a few hundred feet.

It is also a safe guess to say that the university does not employ a bomb detection and diffusion squad.

While these threats end up being false alarms 99 percent of the time, it is not right to take chances by allowing people to remain at the scene.

Had there actually been a bomb, even if it hadn’t blown up, somebody would have had a lot of guilt hanging over their head for not making sure every last soul was out of that building.

Of course, the whole scenario turned out to be  some sort of a sick joke, although there was little humor in it.  

Whoever placed this threat on the door not only threatened to take the lives of others, they also interrupted a concert, students studying and working on papers and the everyday activities of the student union. 

We have enough to worry about without having to deal with people playing sick little games.