Story by Harry Rowe | Staff Writer, Video by Kennedy Dendy | Broadcast Reporter
A rogue adult diaper near Tidwell Bible building led to a campus visit from the McLennan County Sheriff’s office bomb squad.
The diaper, wrapped in white tape, was first reported to the Baylor University Police Department, who received to a call from a concerned member of the Baylor community. They responded and investigated the package, but did not find anything wrong with it.
“We responded and we did an initial assessment on the package, and there was no indicator that this package was a threat to the community,” said Baylor police chief Brad Wigtil.
Even though Baylor police had no reason to believe the package was explosive or lethal in any way, they wanted to be sure. They called the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office to confirm their original assessment of the package.
“They have the technical expertise and equipment to check the package, and we called them to confirm our initial assessment. They came and took the package, they x-rayed it and confirmed that it posed no threat to the community,” Wigtil said.
Baylor has multiple ways of contacting its students in order to alert students of potential dangers or need-to-know information about the university and campus, according to Leigh Ann Moffett, Baylor’s Director of Emergency Preparedness.
“We have three different types of messages we use: Baylor Alert, Baylor safety notification and Baylor timely warning. In this case today, we used the Baylor safety notification. We had a situation that was unfolding — we weren’t certain exactly what it looked like, but we knew that it wasn’t anything that was immediately life threatening, and so we opted to use the Baylor safety notification,” Moffett said.
When an alert is sent out, it is sent to all students and faculty through email and text. If students follow the @BaylorAlert Twitter account, they will be notified through that as well. The goal of these alerts is to ensure that in the case of any real and significant threats, the Baylor community is protected.
“It provides a sense of readiness for us, knowing that we have tools and resources in place to be able to immediately notify our constituents of any concerns that we could potentially be faced with, and being able to provide them with information of what actions they should take following an event or as that event is unfolding,” Moffett said. “Without having those capabilities in place, it would be significantly different, and we wouldn’t be able to share the information as timely to ensure the safety and security of our constituents.”
