Historically Black colleges issue lockdown orders, cancel classes after
receiving threats
[September 12, 2025]
By SARA CLINE
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A series of reported threats toward historically
Black colleges and universities across the U.S. on Thursday led to
lockdown orders, canceled classes and heightened security.
Authorities did not elaborate on the type of threats that were made and
no injuries have been reported. The FBI told The Associated Press that
they are taking the “hoax threat calls“ seriously and that there is “no
information to indicate a credible threat.”
Although lockdowns have since been lifted, schools that received the
threats continue to act with an abundance of caution. In an era of mass
shootings — and following a wave of violence Wednesday and a spate of
hoax calls about active shooters at the start of the school year — some
universities opted to call off classes for the rest of the week and send
students home.
U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, a Louisiana Democrat, called the threats
“reprehensible attacks” and said that any threat made against HBCUs is
“a threat against us all.”
“These attacks cannot be tolerated, minimized, or ignored,” he said.
“They must be met with swift and decisive action.”
Southern University in Louisiana, which reported a “potential threat to
campus safety” on the 8,200-student campus and put students under
lockdown for about an hour. At Alabama State University, which sits near
downtown Montgomery and has an enrollment of about 3,500, students were
ordered to shelter-in-place as police searched each building on campus.
About two hours later, the university said that it had received the
“all-clear” from police. However, the school said that while the
“immediate threat has been resolved” students were asked to shelter in
place in their dorms and classes were cancelled for the remainder of the
day.
Clark Atlanta University in Georgia, Virginia State University, Hampton
University in Virginia and Bethune-Cookman University in Florida also
reported threats.
Precautionary measures came at a time of heightened worry on school
campuses over violence following the assassination of conservative
activist Charlie Kirk at a Utah Valley University and a shooting at a
Colorado high school.
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The campus of Clark Atlanta University is seen April 21, 2019, in
Atlanta. (AP Photo/Jeff Martin, File)
Swatting incidents typically increase after violent events, putting
schools on edge, said Don Beeler, chief executive officer of TDR
Technology Solutions, which tracks swatting calls and offers
technology to prevent them. The safety measures that schools may
implement following potential threats could be heightened, such as
cancelling class for a few days, instead of just one day.
“Anything that happens in the next week is going to get an
overreaction than what you normally see,” Beeler said.
Other HBCUs that did not receive threats announced that they, too,
were tightening security.
South Carolina State University required anyone coming on campus, in
Orangeburg, to show a photo ID after the threats started surfacing.
Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia — which neighbors a university
that did receive a threat — issued a lockdown Thursday and said it
was amping up security measures.
At the start of the school year, at least a dozen college campuses
received hoax calls about active shooters. The realistic-sounding
calls, some of which had gunshots that could be heard in the
background, prompted universities to issue lockdowns with directions
to “run, hide, fight.”
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Cline reported from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Associated Press Writers
Kimberly Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama; Heather Hollingsworth in
Mission, Kansas; and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina
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