SMC — A bomb threat at Santa Monica College was cleared Tuesday after authorities closed off the campus' quad as a precaution.
SMC police say that a note was found in the college's bathroom specifically targeting the quad, where representatives of 150 colleges and hundreds of others were attending a transfer fair.
Campus police obtained the note at roughly 12:10 p.m., alerted the campus and then cleared the quad. Classes were not cancelled. The incident wrapped up at 1:21 p.m., said Albert Vasquez, dean of campus security and chief of the Santa Monica College Police Department.
Santa Monica Police Department personnel were dispatched to the scene along with canine units to look for an explosive, but nothing was found, Vasquez said.
SMC police would not release further details because the investigation was just beginning.
"A note was found. We think we can find the person who put it there," Vasquez said.
Even false bomb threats constitute a crime, he said.
Campus officials already had such an incident "on their radar" in light of the bombing at the Boston Marathon finish line last week that killed three people and injured over 150 more.
CSU Los Angeles evacuated its entire campus last Thursday because of a bomb threat. UC Berkeley, threatened with a bomb at almost the same time, did not, reported the Washington Post.
Social media at SMC was immediately active with tweets and posts detailing the situation, including some false reports that SMC was being completely evacuated.
College officials warned the campus community with phone calls and e-mails and kept the community up-to-date as the threat unfolded.
editor@www.smdp.com
Paul Alvarez Jr. contributed to this report.
